


Undertale - Overwritten

by Mix_It_Up



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Chara and Flowey remember, Chara has a glitchy soul, Chara is a ghost/spirit, Chara is actually good, Chara point of view, Chara's gender not specified, First Person, Flowey is tired, Frisk's gender not specified, Gen, One chance, Tagging is Hard lol, Thinking up tags is hard lol, Too many resets to care, Very little swearing, first fanfic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-08
Updated: 2019-12-20
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:34:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 34,910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21714616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mix_It_Up/pseuds/Mix_It_Up
Summary: They've gone through so many resets that Chara just didn't care anymore. That is... until the next one caught their attention. It was too sudden for a reset. What happened?A note: To avoid spoilers I'm just going to say that this work was inspired by youtuber Jael Penaloza. Also this is my first fanfic and everything portrayed in the story is how I think the universe of Undertale is. Everything is my opinion.CURRENTLY ON HIATUS
Comments: 16
Kudos: 47





	1. Another Reset

_Neutral. Pacifist._ _**GeNOcIdE** _ . _I've seen them all. Over and over and over again. The first time it happened I was confused. So confused. It was like I just woke up from a dream. A very sad dream. And then there they were. Another human. Lying on a bed of golden flowers. Their name was Frisk. And for some reason, I was bound to them. It wasn't that bad. They were quite curious. I was surprised they could see me considering... No one else could._

_Frisk seemed like a normal child. Well... If normal meant they had the ability to rewind time. There were many times when a monster was actually able to kill Frisk but by some magical miracle... It was like time would rewind to just before their death and they would try again, knowing exactly what to do... Sometimes. It took them a few tries before actually getting their dodging down, but even then, there was always a new challenge. Always a different way to die. What I didn't understand was why I was able to remember their deaths when no one else knew._

_When mom was teaching them to be a pacifist, they took it to heart. They did not want to fight, even after being backed into a corner by dad, by the king of monsters. Of course, I watched as dad refused their mercy. It was like he actually cut away Frisk's ability for mercy during their battle. Frisk was forced to fight him. I could see it on their face that they didn't want to. But... In the end... Dad died. But not by Frisk. By HIM. By "Flowey." By my brother. By Asriel. I watched him become a horrible monster; taking the six human souls dad had collected and taking away Frisk's power of rewinding time. I watched as he murdered them over and over again. It was clear on Frisk's mind that even they didn't know what to do at first._

_But then... Then they called for help. I didn't understand at first. No one was around. "Flowey" even told them that it was useless. But then I witnessed another miracle. The six human souls rebelled against him and helped Frisk. Healed Frisk. In the end, I watched as Frisk, despite what my brother had done to them, spare him. They were so merciful... And then they crossed the barrier, leaving the monsters behind. I thought that was it. But then... For some reason, Frisk rewound time. To the time before their fight with dad. They said they had something to do first. That it was really important._

_And they were right. It was important. I watched them forge even closer friendships to everyone they had come across and bring them all together while learning some... Disturbing truth along the way. And then... They went to go challenge dad again, only... It was different. Mom showed up before the fight even started, saving Frisk. One by one, all the people Frisk befriended started to appear in the throne room. It really did seem like a happy ending... And then he showed up again. Only... He didn't take JUST the human souls this time. He took... Every monsters. It was like the world had suddenly gone black. All that existed was Frisk and Asriel._

_I watched as Frisk fought Asriel, or rather... SAVE him. And it was during that moment that I finally figured out that I was able to do something besides be a guide to Frisk. I was able to SAVE Asriel. Bring him to his senses. And then... The barrier shattered. Every monster had returned. But they had no recollection of what they just went through. Only Frisk and I knew. Everyone was ready to leave the underground, but Frisk... They detoured all the way back to the ruins... To the beginning. Where it all started. And there he was. Asriel. In his own body. It made me question how Frisk knew he would be there. Frisk gave one last goodbye to him before heading all the way back to Hotland and crossing the barrier with everyone. THAT seemed like the perfect happy ending. But then..._

_I was back. In the beginning. Frisk was lying on the golden bed of flowers. I didn't understand. Did they rewind all the way to the beginning? Why? What could have made them do such a thing? And then I found out... One by one, Frisk slaughtered every single monster they came across. It was horrible. I didn't understand. Why were they killing monsters? Mom... Papyrus... Undyne... All of Frisk's friends... Turned to dust. It wasn't until after Waterfall that I... Understood. It was_ _**fun.** _ _Annoying, but fun. It was like it was nothing more than a game to Frisk. After all, they could rewind time. What consequences would there be if no one was around to remember it?_

_But then... The smiley trash bag got in the way. And... He knew! He knew that something was up with Frisk. Knew about their power of rewinding time. He called Frisk an anomaly. But we didn't care. He was in the way. The game was almost done. But he didn't go down without a fight. No matter how many times Frisk rewound time the trash bag would always find a way to kill them. But then... We noticed. He was affected too. He was getting tired with each rewind. It took a handful of more rewinds but... We did it. We killed him. It was so satisfying, watching him turn to dust._

_And then we came to him, to_ _**Asgore** _ _. We never gave him a chance. Frisk was too powerful. It took just one swing to bring him down to his knees. But then... Asriel showed up, taking away_ _**our** _ _kill. We weren't happy with that. Despite his pleas for mercy, we killed him._ _**We killed them all.** _ _We were so powerful now. Before we crossed the barrier, I had fully come to Frisk, offering them a chance to become even more powerful as we would take on any human who dared get in our way. But then... They were hesitant!_

 _Turns out they became hesitant during the long fight with that smiley trash bag. They refused my offer. It didn't make any sense. After coming so far they just wanted to quit? Well... I didn't let them. I didn't let them forget the horrible things they did as they once again rewound, or rather,_ _**reset** _ _, their timeline. I reminded them of their horrible actions whenever they got a happy ending. They then even went on another genocide route! They ignored me until the very end._

_Over and over and over again. I watched as they played their little game with the monsters; being a pacifist... Being a murderer. It happened so many times... That I soon got bored. I didn't pay much attention to them anymore until... Something happened. They were going through their sixth genocide run. They were at the fight with that smiley trash bag. They died a few times but then... Everything reset. Or at least... It seemed._

_Back at the beginning again, in a bed of golden flowers. Frisk awoke from their fall. But... They seemed different. They seemed like... Not them. It was like they were a whole different person. Like someone took over their body. They were clumsy, clueless. What was even more confusing was that... Asriel didn't recognize them like he always did. Even more so FRISK didn't recognize Asriel. They fell for his "friendliness pellets" shtick. What was going on? Was this... Really Frisk?_


	2. Again and Again

_ Frisk was definitely being weird. They were acting like they were in the very beginning. Talking with everyone, touching everything. But... What was even weirder was that... They couldn't see me. They could hear me... At least, I think they did. They always seemed to listen to my advice but it was like they thought of it themselves. _

_ Mom had brought Frisk to her home in the ruins and again, Frisk took a nap and mom baked her pie. Only, something was different. When Frisk confronted mom about leaving and mom told them to stay as she went to destroy the ruin doors... Frisk actually went back to the room. They never did that before. _

"Hey! Hey Frisk!"  _ I called to them.  _ "You can't be serious! What are you doing?! Get out of bed and go fight Toriel!"  _ They didn't respond.  _ "FRISK! GET UP!"  _ Nothing. I tried grabbing the blanket but I just phased right through it. I had no power. Wait... I had no power. All my influence I had on Frisk was gone! Now that I thought about it, I didn't sense any kind of residue LOVE from all the previous resets. It was like... They cleaned their soul... How? How did they do that? And... Why did they leave me out of it? What made them think that I had to be only one left to deal with the burden of all these past memories and resets? All the happy memories? All the murder? Why was I the only one who could remember? _

_ And then, a thought. Sans. Maybe he remembers. But Frisk wasn't getting up. It was frustrating. I didn't know what else to do. I couldn't stray far from Frisk, and the basement was definitely too far away. _

"Frisk! Get up! You can't just lay there!"  _ And then suddenly, they got out of bed. They looked around the house. What were they doing? It was like they were looking for mom... They then made their way to the basement and finally... They fought her, or rather, spared her, just like they did with every other monster in the ruins. I had no idea if Frisk was attempting another pacifist run. It seemed like it. _

_ Mom opened the doors and Frisk walked through. All the way out and into the snow of the forest. They tried turning back, but the doors were sealed shut. I looked at the bush by the door to see Alphys' camera watching us... Watching them. Frisk slowly made their way down the path, scared and shivering. In the meantime, I was looking in the direction of where Sans would appear. Of course, he was being a jerk. The stick broke. Frisk jumped and turned to see no one there. But I saw him. They then kept going. And again, I saw him, Frisk sensed him and when they turned around he was gone again. And then came the gate. _

_Frisk studied it, Sans approached._

"Sans!"  _ I called. But he didn't seem to hear me. However, Frisk seemed to have, for they turned around before Sans even told them to. Once again, I saw the confusion on his face but still laugh as Frisk shook his hand, squeezing the whoopee cushion in his hand. Frisk laughed. Sans made his speech, Frisk hid from Papyrus, Papyrus made his speech, Papyrus left. Frisk wandered around the station. Now was my chance. _

"Sans! Sans please hear me! Sans!"  _ I called and called, but he was just keeping an eye on Frisk with that stupid smile. I growled.  _ "You stupid bag of bones! If you don't answer me right now I swear I'll kill your brother for the seventh time-!" _ I stopped as I saw his attention shift to me. So he could see me. The jerk. The lights in his eyes were gone. _

"look kid, i don't know who you are or what you're talkin' about, but if i ever hear you threatenin' to kill my brother, well... you're gonna have a bad time."  _ I huffed. _

"Yeah, yeah. Like I haven't heard that one before."  _ His smile faded. _

"i mean it kid."  _ His lights returned to his eyes and he gave me a confused look.  _ "what even are you anyway? you look human... but you also look like a ghost? what, are ya haunting the kid here?"

"You don't remember..."  _ I sighed. Just great. _

"remember what?"  _ I groaned. He was going to be of no help.  _

"Nothing, forget it."  _ He stared at me. _

"you said 'seventh.' what does that mean kid?"  _ I rolled my eyes. _

"If you can't remember then it's not worth saying."  _ His lights disappeared. _

"listen kid, if you know somethin' concerning my brother, spill it. what do you mean you would kill him for the seventh time? what's going to happen to papyrus?"

"You really want to know you smiley trash bag?"  _ His lights came back and he stared at me in surprise before glaring at me. _

"are you two with that damn flower? You better back off if you know what's good for you."  _ I suddenly felt myself get pulled. Frisk was walking away. I groaned. Great.  _ "hey! i'm not done talking with you!"  _ He approached and grabbed Frisk's shoulder, turning them around. Frisk gave him a confused look. _

"Look, don't drag Frisk into this. Not yet."  _ I said to him.  _ "They don't seem to remember either. I'm the only who knows what happened."  _ I watched as he stared at me before giving Frisk a shaky smile. _

"u-uh... h-hey kid... i'll meet you up ahead. i just have to take care of a few things."  _ Frisk smiled at him and nodded, happily walking away. I looked at Sans. His lights were gone as he was watching us leave. It made me wonder if he would even help if I told him everything. _

_***_

_ Papyrus. In the beginning, I liked him, as did Frisk. His puzzles weren't the best but there was something about his attitude. Until... That attitude became annoying. I remember in a timeline or two that Asriel said he actually fooled around with him, giving his false praise and training him one on one. Not that it did any good. _

_ I watched as Frisk clumsily tried to solve Papyrus' "face puzzle." The one where he tried to rearrange the snow to look like his face but it froze over before he could make progress. Watching Frisk attempt the stupid puzzle again, I looked at the tall skeleton. He was watching Frisk with a smug look on his face, like he finally thought this puzzle would stop them. I rolled my eyes. And then I wondered... Could Papyrus see me? No. If he could then he would've said something in the beginning. _

_ Unless he was acting like Sans and being a jerk about it. I laughed. No. Papyrus would never do that. I floated over to Frisk, who was still having trouble and turning the x's into o's and the o's into triangles. _

"Having fun yet Frisk?"  _ I tried saying to them, but obviously they couldn't see me or hear me.  _ "Ugh, come on Frisk, we've done this a dozen times! Just go press the hidden switch by Papyrus and let's get this over with!"  _ Frisk stopped and looked back at Papyrus, a curious look on their face. Did they hear me? They walked over to Papyrus. _

"AHA! HUMAN! DO YOU GIVE UP?"  _ He said in his annoying voice. Frisk just gave him a smile and shook their head and went to the tree where the hidden switch was. When they found it, they pressed it.  _ "OH HO! SO I SEE YOU FOUND THE HIDDEN SWITCH! GOOD FOR YOU HUMAN!"  _ Papyrus laughed and headed off towards his next puzzle, Frisk slowly walking behind. And right on cue, there was Sans. _

"heh. looks like ya didn't need my help solvin' that puzzle after all."  _ He said.  _ "though, how did you know the switch was there?"  _ He looked at me as Frisk just shrugged and smiled. _

"Because we've done this puzzle a dozen times."  _ I said.  _ "These stupid... Low effort puzzles that a child could solve."

"well, obviously your child couldn't solve this one. they had to rely on cheatin'."

"I was getting annoyed! Frisk cannot see me and they only hear me when they want to!"  _ I was getting dragged along and I groaned. It was useless. Frisk was taking the route of a pacifist again and I knew they wouldn't stop. They would keep moving forward. _

_ Papyrus' last "puzzle." The "Bridge of Doom." Such a lame puzzle. It honestly made me wonder what would happen if he had actually gone through with it and activated everything. And once again, he couldn't do it. Once again he made his way to Snowdin. Once again, Frisk crossed the bridge. I looked back. There he was. Asriel just watching Frisk with a smug smile on his face. He then stared in surprise before disappearing. Did he see me? No. It was because Sans was looking at me, looking at the direction I was looking. He had to have seen Asriel. _

"how did you know that flower would be there?"  _ Sans asked. I sighed. _

"Because like I said you piece of trash, we've gone through this more than a dozen times."  _ I groaned. It wasn't worth it. Unless Sans actually did something to disrupt the game, I was stuck watching Frisk act like a total toddler as they would make their way to the barrier. And after all the timelines we went through, I knew Sans wouldn't intervene. He's too lazy for that. And then I remembered. The fight with Papyrus. If Frisk was going to do everything right all over again, then that would mean they would, ugh, "go on a date with Papyrus." And while they are doing that, I could talk to Sans. _

***

_ Snowdin. A peaceful little town. Frisk stared in awe at everything and talked to everyone. Again. They bought health items at the shop and tried to relax at the inn, which I knew would end up horrible but they still somehow felt refreshed. They talked to the snowman and went into Grillby's. They passed Papyrus' house and his shed. The mail in Sans' mailbox was overfilled again. It made me wonder what a skeleton like him did to get that much mail, especially in bills. What were the bills anyway besides the obvious utilities? Whatever. It didn't matter. _

_ Frisk finally came to the fog, to Papyrus. He went on his speech again. Frisk fought him again, flirted with him again. But... They were so clumsy when it came to Papyrus' blue attack. So clumsy in fact that Papyrus had captured them and locked us away in his shed. I remembered the first time it happened. The bars were too wide, the bed was for a dog and there was a note by Papyrus. Same old, same old. _

_ Frisk walked out and confronted Papyrus again. The fight continued. The flirting continued. I never really understood why Frisk kept flirting with every monster they came across when they weren't murdering everyone. What I never understood even more was when the monsters flirted back. Why? Frisk was just kid. At least... They looked like one. _

_ Again. Papyrus captured us again. His second note lay on the ground and there was a cut up hotdog in the dog bowl. Frisk left again and confronted Papyrus for the third time. Something then came to mind. Sans. He had to be hiding somewhere. As Frisk continued with Papyrus, I floated as far as I could away from them, to the trees. _

"Sans?"  _ I called.  _ "I know you're watching you lazy sack of trash. You were always watching whenever we killed your brother-."

"you know kid, you're getting really annoying."  _ There he was, hiding behind a tree. I rolled my eyes.  _ "so what do you want kid?"

"We need to talk."

"can't it wait?"

"I don't think so. I know for a fact that you're interested in the things I have to say. After all, it could even answer some of your... Deeper questions."  _ I saw that got him. _

"fine. what is it kid?"  _ I looked at the battle. _

"I've watched this fight so many times and it always ended one of two ways; Frisk will either spare your brother and go on a fake date with him, or they'll kill him. But seeing as how Frisk is doing another pacifist run, the moment your brother or Frisk give up this stupid fight, Frisk will turn around and meet with your brother."

"really? and just how many times has this happened?"

"Too many times."  _ I gritted my teeth.  _ "But I still don't understand. Why can't you remember? Every reset, you were there. You knew what happened because you could remember. And I know you're affected by it."  _ I looked at him. His lights were gone.  _ "I know that Frisk died while doing one of Papyrus' puzzles. Surely you experienced the time rewinding. In fact, it wasn't the only time Frisk had died today. They even died a few times in the ruins. Tell me Sans, we didn't interrupt anything during our resets did we?"  _ He stared at me. Guess that was a yes.  _

"who are you?"  _ I rolled my eyes. _

"Why should you care? You never do. You only care whenever your brother is involved."

"and he isn't involved right now?"

"No. Not right now. Right now, Frisk is harmless. They seem keen on doing this pacifist run."

"why do you keep saying that?"

"Because that's what this is."  _ I groaned and rolled my eyes.  _ "Frisk is going to go through this game as a total pacifist. They will never fight, only spare. And they will get the respect of every monster in the underground. That's just how it is. Until they decide to pursue the genocide route. When they make that decision, they will kill everyone. Including you. You will put up a fight, but in the end, you will die."

"you seem pretty sure about yourself there kid."

"Because it's happened so many times. I just..."  _ I gritted my teeth.  _ "I don't understand why no one else remembers. Why am I left with this burden? I didn't want this. If I could I would erase my memory too. I would rather watch Frisk with joy as they did the one thing I failed to do than watch them without feeling anything."  _ I sighed. _

"what are you talkin' about kid?"  _ I rolled my eyes and looked at him to see he was utterly confused. I looked him over. _

"Tell me Sans, how old are you?"  _ He chuckled and shrugged. _

"eh, who knows? it's hard to tell time here in the underground."

"I know... And it's even harder to tell when Frisk rewinds or resets the timeline..."  _ I sighed.  _ "Do you know the king and queen of the underground?"

"personally? no. but i mean, who hasn't heard of King Asgore?"  _ I looked at him. It was an obvious lie. Of course, he didn't know that I knew. I sighed. _

"Have you heard the story of their children?"

"yeah. tragic story."  _ I rolled my eyes. Tragic story. Please. It was devastating. All because Asriel wouldn't fight. He had the power and he didn't do anything.  _ "you alright there bucko?"  _ I looked at Sans. _

"Oh. Yes. Just peachy."  _ I said sarcastically.  _ "Why wouldn't I be fine when everything that I have come to know suddenly no longer exists? Frisk can't see me! You can't remember the numerous times you have killed us! How we killed everyone!"  _ I didn't notice I had started crying.  _ "How it feels to be the only one around who knows the real truth!"

"h-hey, easy kid. no need to cry."  _ I sighed. It was no use. Once again I was going to be dragged through this hell. It made me finally wonder if I actually was in Hell. If this was my punishment. To go on forever watching this single human child either free or kill all monsters.  _ "hey, look. looks like they're done fighting."  _ I looked. He was right. Frisk had actually made it through Papyrus' fight. The fog suddenly cleared, Papyrus headed home. I sighed. Time for that stupid date now... _


	3. Reconnect

_ The date was in full effect but I stayed out of it, hovering in the hall. I would have gone to Sans' room but it was just out of reach. Of course Frisk had to be just far enough away to ruin what I wanted. Fortunately, Sans was willing to meet me halfway. _

"so... kid..."

"It's Chara. Remember it."

"okay kid."  _ I sighed. He was playing with me, as per usual.  _ "so, wanna tell me your secrets? i'll tell you mine if you tell me yours."

"That's kind of not a fair trade considering I know everything about you Sans."

"oh do you now?"  _ I rolled my eyes. _

"Yes. I do. You have a machine hidden in your basement. You were once a scientist. You loved being one. That is... Until the accident."  _ That got his attention.  _ "Oh yes. When I say I know everything, I mean it. I. Know. Everything. It's kind of hard not to know when Frisk wanted to find every secret they could as they played their little game."

"if you know everything, then why can't you figure out what happened?"

"Don't get wise with me you bag of trash-"  _ I stopped and sighed. I had to get his trust somewhat before Frisk goes all genocide route on everyone again.  _ "Sans."

"what's with the change of attitude?"

"Nothing. I just realized it's not worth my time insulting you.”

“how kind of you.”  _ I scoffed and rolled my eyes. Did I really need his help? I sighed. Yeah. I did.  _ “so, what is it that i can give you in exchange for your information?”

“Nothing.”

“really now?”  _ He was suspicious of me. I don't blame him. I did just drop a bomb on him. _

“Yes. Really. I just... I just want to know what's going on. Why Frisk reset again when they were so close to completing the game.”

“you keep saying 'game.' what does that mean?”

“This.”  _ I gestured to the whole house, even though I meant to be gesturing to the underground as a whole.  _ “Is all just a game. I've come to realize that around the first genocide route. To Frisk, there are no consequences because of what they can do. The power they hold.”

“the power to reset.”  _ I looked at him. _

“So, you do know that power. Figures. I mean after all, you were studying humans and their power of determination with the Doctor.”

“... so the kid can reset?”

“Yeah. They've done it so many times now. But what I don't understand is why you don't remember now, considering you've remembered before with each reset.”  _ I looked at him.  _ “Unless you're messing with us as per usual.”

“per usual? heh. how can i do that if i don't even know ya kid?”  _ I groaned. _

“That's what I've been trying to say!”  _ It was useless. I was repeating myself over and over again. He just wasn't getting it. I sighed heavily.  _ “It doesn't matter. Nothing matters anymore. I can't do anything until Frisk completes a genocide route.”

“what exactly happens on that 'route?'”

“Exactly as it means. Frisk will kill anyone they come across, forcing the monsters to hide in the deepest recesses of the underground. It is only then when Frisk kills my brother, that I will have control again. And when that happens... I'm gonna find out what exactly Frisk did so that... I won't have these memories anymore.”  _ I sighed.  _ “But that's going to take a long time. It always has.”  _ There was silence. _

“so, i'm the only one who can see you huh?”

“Unless down the road someone else can see me, yes. You are currently the only one.”

“so i guess i was looking weird when i was talking to ya in front of the kid.”

“I don't even think they noticed. Your actions were not part of the game.”

“so how does this game play out?”  _ I sighed. _

“Well, it's a pacifist run so... Frisk will get to Waterfall, meet Undyne and at the rate they've been dying, will die to her a couple times so I hope you don't mind a handful of resets in the next few hours. Then Frisk will get to Hotland-”

“i think i get it.”  _ I looked at him.  _ “yeah. so the kid is on a set path?”

“Pretty much. Unless something different happens in the game, Frisk will follow the set path of pacifism.”

“so... what we're doing right now isn't different?”

“Don't get me wrong, it is completely different from all the other resets because no one was able to see me except Frisk. But now... now they can't see or hear me but you can. However, Frisk isn't acknowledging it. The game can only change when Frisk acknowledges the change.”

“so then, i'll make a change. what do i have to do? what's something different that i can do that doesn't follow this 'set path?'”

“Well... You could kill Frisk.”  _ I could see that got him.  _ “You think I'm kidding? I'm not. You could kill Frisk the moment they walk out of Papyrus' room. They'll die, they'll reset, probably be a little frustrated, and then they'll try again.”

“or...?”  _ I rolled my eyes and sighed. He obviously wasn't going to do that without a reason. _

“OR... you can just do nothing. Wait until Frisk resets everything back to the very beginning when they start their genocide route and kill everyone again.”

“i can't just talk to the kid?”

“You can try, but I highly doubt Frisk will understand... They're different now than they were before. It's like... they're a whole different person entirely. But yet they are still them.”

“like a brain swap or something?”

“I guess. I mean... I noticed right away when I couldn't control Frisk. They had no EXP. No residue LOVE from all the other resets. It was like... they themselves was reset. And I want that...”

“huh... so, what are you kid?”

“I don't know honestly. A ghost? Spirit? Apparition?”

“aren't those all the same thing?”

“It depends... Either way, I'm not like Napstablook or their enraged dummy cousin or Mettaton. I cannot find a host to call my body because I have no soul.”

“no soul...? that's hard to believe pal when i can clearly see the amount of LOVE you hold... i've never seen such a high level. and yet... you can still feel. anyone with that amount of LOVE shouldn't be able to feel anything.”

“I know. It's even easier to not feel anything when you don't have a soul. Nothing ever excites you anymore.”

“huh... sounds pretty complicated.”

“You have no idea.”  _ I looked at him.  _ “Sans... are you afraid of me?”  _ He chuckled. _

“why should i be when you can't do anything like you said?”

“Because I know everything. Frisk may not be able to see me but they can hear me on occasion. All it takes is striking Frisk's fancy and I could have them do a complete one eighty on everything. I could make them start to murder everyone once they leave Snowdin.”  _ I saw that got him. _

“... still, like you said... the kid barely hears you as is.”  _ He smiled his stupid smile.  _ “look, i'll do what i can to break this so called cycle you claim to be trapped in, but in return, you gotta keep the kid from becoming a murderer.”  _ I sighed. _

“I can try but since they are acting on their own, not listening to a word I say, I can't promise they won't change their mind when they either cross or break the barrier. Because it's when they do that they just... reset again.”

“what are you saying? that they never leave the mountain?”

“Yeah. They have never once left the mountain. It's like they too are confined to the underground.”

“huh... weird.”  _ Papyrus' door opened. _

“So, are you going to kill them Sans? Kill Frisk?”  _ He didn't have time to answer for Frisk and Papyrus walked out together, smiles on their faces. I looked at Sans but he was gone. Coward. Of course he couldn't do it. With a sigh, I followed Frisk out of the house and towards Waterfall, where I watched as Frisk admired the echo flower near Sans' station. The skeleton was watching them. I knew what came next. _

“heya kid. what? you never seen a guy work two jobs before?”  _ I sighed as he went on. Everything was playing out the same. He invited them to Grillby's, he 'warned' Frisk of Asriel, he messed with Frisk's food and he left, leaving Frisk to make the trek all the way back to Waterfall, where we passed him yet again. Frisk gave him a smile and continued to walk past. I looked at Sans and he looked at me. He was obviously unsure about what to do. _

***

_ Waterfall. I always found the place very tranquil and serene during the first pacifist route. Well, aside from the obvious threat of Undyne. It was a very pretty place and the history of the monsters were scrawled all throughout its walls. The cavern's ceiling shined like the stars in the sky. Frisk couldn't help but admire it. They hated getting wet though, which was odd. The first time Frisk came to Waterfall, they didn't mind at all. They found it rather fun. _

_We came to Sans again and his stupid telescope._

“heya kid. i thought i would try my hand at the telescope business myself. normally it costs five thousand g to use it, but, since i know ya, i'll let ya use it for free. so, how about it?”  _ And Frisk fell for it. They were so eager to look through the telescope. _

“You know, after the third time, it's not all that funny anymore.”  _ I remarked. He shrugged. _

“i think it's plenty funny.”  _ I rolled my eyes and stared at Frisk's face. There was a red circle over the eye they peered out of. They looked at Sans confused.  _ “what? not satisfied?”  _ I could see him trying to hold back his laughter. I rolled my eyes. _

“Come on Frisk. Let's keep moving. You still have to fight Undyne and get to Hotland.”  _ Frisk waved goodbye to Sans and continued on their way. I sighed.  _ “You look stupid with that ring around your eye-”

“hey, kid.”  _ We both stopped and looked at Sans, Frisk curious, me suspicious. He just deviated from the path. Was he going to go through with it...? No. He chuckled and motioned to his own socket.  _ “you got a little something on your face. might wanna get rid of it unless you want people to stare.”  _ Frisk looked at the water next to them. They gasped and then laughed, wiping off the ring around their eye. I looked at Sans. He shrugged. _

“And here I thought you were going to deviate from the path. How disappointing.”  _ Frisk continued on, listening to the echo flowers that were repeating the last conversation that passed it. I never really knew who those voices belonged to. It wasn't long after until we came to the bridge, where Undyne once again tried to skewer us alive. Frisk got caught multiple times. They even died a few times because they just weren't fast enough. It made me wonder if Sans was rethinking my proposition. _

_ And then came the fall. Down. Down we fell. And Frisk was once again saved by a bed of golden flowers. And of course, during that time, they were passed out. There wasn't much I could do. I knew what Frisk was dreaming about though. They told me about it the first time it happened, when I was actually concerned for them. They somehow dreamed about my fall in the underground, but they couldn't see anything. It never really did make sense to me. Sure I was bound to Frisk but that didn't mean that our mind and memories were linked. And yet... they woke me up. _

_ We both knew that there were many other humans who fell down here after I had passed. The proof was with Asgore after all. But... none of them woke me up. So why did Frisk? That question always did bother me after they completed their second genocide route. I sighed. Even if we had discovered almost all the secrets of the underground, this was one secret we never did find an answer for, although, we never even tried looking. Maybe... I could try in this timeline. But that would involve having to actually care, which would be hard considering I feel nothing. I sighed. I still had to try. Maybe if I tried to feel again, I just might be able to find out what happened. _

_ Frisk woke up, finally. A thought then came to me. What if the reason Frisk couldn't see or hear me was because I wasn't exactly myself like the first time we met? When we first met, I was confused and scared but along the way, Frisk and I had bonded and made friends. But after this reset, I wasn't like that anymore. I wasn't... on their wave length. Well, it was worth a shot. But first thing was first, I had to calm myself. I... had to remember how to care. _

“F-Frisk?”  _ I sounded stupid. I had to sound like I actually cared.  _ “F-Frisk are you alright?”  _ I sighed. There was no way I was going to be able to pull this off. But then, by some miracle, it was like they actually heard me. They were looking around wildly. I tried again.  _ “Frisk. Frisk over here! I'm right here! Please tell me you can hear me!” _ They nodded and continued to look around. They could hear me! Well, it was a start.  _ “Oh, finally! You have no idea how long I've been trying to get your attention! I've been with you since you first fell down into the underground. But... you were never able to see or hear me.”  _ This was good. This was progress. I just had to keep this up. _

“Frisk, I'm gonna try my best to get you through this, okay? Because... you're not the only one who's scared.”  _ They nodded and stood up, looking around. It was obvious they were confused about where they were.  _ “Let's keep going. Maybe there's something ahead.”  _ Frisk nodded and walked on. It was then apparent on their face that they knew where they were. The dumps. And I knew what was ahead. The stupid enraged dummy cousin of Nabstablook. There was no way around the guy. Whether Frisk interacted with him or not, the dummy always got upset about something. _

_ I didn't have to help Frisk with that battle. The stupid dummy was, well, stupid. And then on cue, Nabstablook showed up. And then on cue, Frisk went to hang out with them. As they lay on the ground feeling like garbage, I took that moment to think. The fight with Undyne was approaching fast and I was not ready for it, despite the many times we've defeated her. She was, without a doubt, the hardest obstacle to pass, at least, during a genocide route. I mean sure, Sans was hard to beat but... his battle... he was able to mess with Frisk's mind. It was all in their head. His attacks did nothing. That was the thing. Sure they hurt, but they only dealt one hit point. It was his mind games that made all those hits feel like a thousand. _

_ And then, after learning his attacks from frequently dying, he became easier to beat, not to mention his exhaustion from the constant resets. He was never given a break, never given a chance to catch his breath, because he was somehow affected by the power of resets. I sighed. That sack of bones wasn't going to help. He's too lazy for that. Why did I think I could try and count on him? He'll just continue to follow the game's set path for him, just like Frisk... Just like Undyne... just like Asgore. _

“Frisk? As fun as this is, we should get going.”  _ I said. I saw that broke their concentration of... something. Frisk told me the first time that when they lay with Nabstablook, it was like they were suddenly transported to the center of the universe. Which sounded ridiculous. They stood up and bid the ghost goodbye. We were finally on our way to face Undyne. I looked at Frisk. Maybe now that we were on the same wave length, I could ask them a few questions. _

“So, Frisk, what made you reset? We were right at the fight with Sans. We were almost done with the game.”  _ It was like they didn't hear me. Did I move off their wave length? I tried again.  _ “Sooo Frisk... Are you scared about meeting Undyne?”  _ They responded with a nod. I didn't understand. Why didn't they hear me the first time?  _ “... Me too. She's been... really scary so far huh?”  _ They nodded again. A thought then came to my mind. A disturbing thought, but one nonetheless that might answer my question.  _ “Hey, Frisk. Remember Undyne's face when we killed her? She was so full of determination. So much so that her soul didn't even stand a chance.”  _ I looked at Frisk. _

_ Nothing. It was like they didn't hear me. Not even a change in facial expression. And that... confirmed my thought. Frisk couldn't hear most of my words because... they weren't part of the game. Frisk... wasn't Frisk. They truly did reset themselves... Overwritten themselves. They do not, for a fact, remember anything. And that made me angry. Why? Why did Frisk do that to me? Why did they leave me with the memories? And the worst part was that I could never ask them that question, even if they did everything we went through all over again, because it wasn't a part of their memories. _

“Frisk...”  _ They stopped.  _ “I'm... I'm tired, Frisk. Let's... Let's take a break, okay?”  _ I looked around. We were close to the Temmie Village. As much as I despised the Temmies... it was the closest and safest place to rest.  _ “L-Look Frisk, over there. There's a hidden path down that way. Let's go that way.”  _ They nodded with a smile and made their way down the dark path and then... we hit the Temmie Village. It wasn't really a village, more like a long dead end cave. There were no homes technically. The Temmies just... lived. All that really was around was a shop that just sold... Temmie Flakes. _

_ I sighed as Frisk talked to ALL the Temmies. I chuckled a little. I remember when Frisk and I made a joke as we stayed in the Temmie Village the first time around. Frisk was always filled with determination. That's what kept them going throughout the routes, be it pacifist or genocide. I chuckled again. _

“Hey, Frisk. Do you feel that?”  _ They looked up at me. They actually looked at me. They could see me. That made me... feel a little good. I actually smiled at them.  _ “Heh heh. I think you're being filled with... de _ temmie _ nation.”  _ They laughed, making me laugh. It felt good to laugh with my old friend... even if they couldn't remember me... couldn't remember the things we did... _


	4. Hotland

_Undyne. She was definitely easier to handle during a pacifist route, considering Frisk was given multiple chances to run away. At first, they ran in the wrong direction, which was they way we came from. It took me playing stupid to get Frisk to understand that they had to run around Undyne and through the cave that was behind her. So we got into another fight and when given the opportunity, Frisk ran the right way this time. And then, of course, the phone call. I know Undyne had stated that even if Frisk was a human, it was rude to interrupt a phone call but... that was still stupid._

_And then... we exited into Hotland. When Frisk saw Sans they tried getting his attention, calling for help. Though, I knew it was pointless. The good-for-nothing sack of bones wasn't going to do anything to help. When Frisk noticed Undyne get closer, they did something different. Something that... wasn't part of the path. They ran around the sentry station and hid behind Sans. Undyne slammed her hands onto the counter of the station._

“Got you now you little punk! Prepare to di-! ... Sans! Are you seriously asleep?! Wake up you lazy bones!”  _ Undyne grabbed Sans and shook him violently in all directions.  _ "NGGGGGGAAAAHHHH!!!"

"w-whoa whoa! t-take it easy undyne! i'm up, i'm up!"  _ Sans was freaking out but I still couldn't help but stare at the situation. The game had changed, and it was Frisk who caused that change. Undyne placed Sans down and practically threw the sentry station aside, and grabbed Frisk. " _ no offense undyne but aren't you being a little rough? i mean, that is a kid after all."  _ Undyne stared at Sans before getting angry. _

"It doesn't matter! They're human! We need their soul Sans! It's the last piece Asgore needs!"

"yeah i get that undyne but... what if it was a monster child? would you still be able to go through with it?"  _ I stared as Undyne fumed with anger, but was also pondering the thought. And then, as if on cue, Undyne started having trouble breathing. Of course. By this time we would have crossed the bridge over the lava and Undyne would be so hot and out of breath and Frisk would be kind enough to give her water. Undyne dropped Frisk and fell to her knees, wheezing. _

"Can't... Breathe... Armor... Too hot..."  _ She fell over and Frisk and Sans ran to her side. _

"aw geez. hey, kid. go and cross this bridge and bring back a cup of water. hurry!"  _ Frisk quickly did as Sans said but when they returned, they tripped. But, it didn't seem to matter as the water managed to splash all over Undyne's face. Her head fins moved and she blinked open her eyes, staring at Frisk. She then sat up, a questioning look on their face, before leaving without saying a word. Sans sighed. _

"well, that could've gone better. at least you're not sleeping with the fishes."  _ He winked at us, making Frisk give an awkward laugh. I rolled my eyes.  _ "too much?"  _ I scoffed and rolled my eyes. _

"Not even. You could've done better. We...  _ I _ ... Have heard all of your puns before."  _ I looked at Frisk.  _ "Well Frisk, I guess we should get going."  _ They looked at me and shook their head. _

"huh, so the kid can finally see and hear you now?"

"Kind of. They can only take notice of me whenever I stick to the things that don't involve the past."  _ Frisk gave us both a confused look. I knew what was going through their mind.  _ "Yeah, Sans can see and hear me."  _ I affirmed.  _ "It's weird and I don't know why."  _ Frisk was utterly confused. They then shook their head and pointed back towards Waterfall. Of course. How could I forget? They wanted to check on Undyne. _

"Are you sure? I mean, she did try killing us."  _ Frisk nodded, determined. I sighed.  _ "Alright then, let's go see Undyne."  _ I looked at Sans. The path was back on track. Guess the minor deviation was just that, minor. Though, that didn't stop me from asking, _

"Do you wanna come with us?"  _ Sans looked at his sentry station on the ground. _

"eh, i'll stop by later. i have to put this station back up. and that's a lot of work, trust me."  _ I sighed. Yeah right. _

“Whatever. Let's go Frisk.”  _ We made our trek back towards Waterfall, towards Undyne's home. And low and behold, there was Papyrus. I sighed. Here we went again. Papyrus jumped out Undyne's window, taunted Undyne, Undyne tried to be a good host... Freaking Frisk flirted with Undyne. What the hell, seriously?! _

“Seriously?! Why?! Why do you keep flirting with monsters?!”  _ I exclaimed. Frisk just laughed and I groaned, hand running over my face. Whatever. Undyne freaked out about missing their cooking lesson with Papyrus, forced us to partake and then... BOOM. Her house was on fire. Undyne tried to fight us again and Frisk faked an attack. Undyne gained a conscious, we left her house, she headed towards Snowdin. Frisk didn't leave right away. They were too busy worrying about Undyne's house. _

“I wouldn't worry about it Frisk. Undyne doesn't seem too concerned. So we shouldn't.”  _ They gave me a worried look. I gave a chuckle.  _ “H-Heh. H-How much you wanna bet she blows up her house a lot whenever she cooks with Papyrus?”  _ That made Frisk smile and chuckle a little.  _ “I'm sure she has home insurance. Come on, let's head back to Hotland. Maybe... Go help Sans with his station.”  _ They nodded and we made our way back to Hotland. When we got there though, Sans wasn't there and the sentry station was set back up. I sighed.  _ “Oh well. Guess we'll see him later or something.”

***

_The lab. Frisk stared at it in awe. I shivered in disgust. I hated this lab, especially since I knew the truth within its walls. I noticed Frisk giving me a curious look._

“A-Ah. I'm fine. It's just... It looks very intimidating.”  _ They gave me a smile, saying that there was nothing to be scared of so long as we were together. I glanced away.  _ “Y-Yeah... Sure.”  _ We walked into the lab. It was dark. Of course. Frisk saw the giant screen recording them. They shivered and looked at me. They said that they were now starting to feel a little scared. What happened to not being scared so long as we were together? I sighed and motioned that we should keep moving forward. _

_And then... Alphys. She was such a coward. Of course, I knew the shtick she was pulling but I couldn't say anything. Frisk wouldn't hear me. BAM. Mettaton. God Mettaton. No offense to the robot, I liked him better when he was in his other form; his actual human fighting form. It was the only part of him that made me somewhat impressed with Alphys. Somewhat. Mettaton left, Alphys 'went to her bathroom' which I knew was actually the elevator to the lab below. I looked at Frisk._

“So... I guess we should get going.”  _ They nodded. I could see the nervousness on their face. They fell for Alphys' shtick. They were worried about Mettaton. I had to lift their confidence up some what.  _ “C-Come on Frisk, you're not really that worried about that robot are you? We can get passed him. Alphys even said that she'd help us. And she's the royal scientist. She's gotta be smart to get a position like that.”  _ Saying that made me want to throw up. I knew the truth. But if I wanted to keep talking to Frisk, I had to care and stick to the script. They nodded at me, looking a little better, a smile on their face. I gave a 'smile' back.  _ “Yeah... let's keep going.”

_We exited out the back. I detested everything about this part. The constant phone calls, the notifications, the obvious 'Alphys helping out during puzzles when in reality she's controlling it all.' I wanted to throw Frisk's phone into the lava because they kept ansWERING EVERY PHONE CALL AND CHECKING EVERY NOTIFICATION FROM ALPHYS. It was so frustrating. And then there was Mettaton's stupid 'cooking show.' But... seeing Frisk's face during it all... just like when we first came through this part of the game... They were enjoying themselves and they were appreciating Alphys' help. That look... made me give a genuine smile. It made me feel... happy._

_It made me remember my true self... just a bit. We could see the CORE off in the distance. I could see Frisk was a little intimidated. I had to reassure them that everything was going to be alright. I just gave them a smile, to which they smiled back. We came to the elevator. Frisk tried looking up, seeing where it went, but it went to high._

“Come on Frisk. Let's see if we can figure out where this goes.”  _ I said, even though I knew where we going first. Sans. We exited out of the elevator and came to the second Hotland sentry station. Frisk eagerly approached Sans with a happy smile. _

“heh! hey again kid. hungry? i'm selling hot dogs. thirty g a dog. ya interested?”  _ Frisk nodded happily and Sans handed over a 'hot dog,' which I knew was actually a water sausage in a hot dog bun. Frisk took a bite and I couldn't help but laugh a little as they stared at it, confused. _

“heh, well well. looks like 'i can't feel anything' actually can feel something.”  _ I stopped and looked away, arms crossed. _

“What? It's funny.”  _ He chuckled and Frisk looked at both of us, confused. _ “It's nothing Frisk. Just... keep eating or... whatever.”  _ Frisk gave both of us a smile before finishing off the water sausage. It was weird watching them eat it considering it was a plant. I guess Sans had to have cooked it in some way that it actually became edible. It then made me wonder... I remember when we first came here and Frisk wasn't able to carry one more thing but they really wanted a hot dog. And so... Sans placed it on their head. We all had a good laugh. And then Frisk dared Sans to keep going. _

“what's so funny kid?”  _ I looked at Frisk and Sans. They were looking at me, Frisk confused, Sans with a smug look on his face. I guess I was smiling at the memory. _

“Nothing just... remembering a good time.”

“oh yeah? care to share?”

“If I did then... Frisk wouldn't understand. It wouldn't be part of the game.”

“so? then tell me.”  _ I looked at him. Maybe if I see it again... Maybe I'll feel more. _

“Well... Once in a timeline... Frisk dared you to stack hot dogs on their head. Your max was twenty nine. Thirty was, apparently, a ridiculous number.”  _ Sans laughed, making me snicker a little. Frisk stared at us, totally confused, but ended up laughing anyway. _

“now that sounds like a grand time!”

“Heh! Well, whaddya say? Think you can make it to thirty?”  _ I taunted. He shrugged. _

“meh. sounds like work, and i don't really like that much work.”  _ My smile faded. Guess we weren't going to have any fun after all. _

“I see.”  _ I was actually disappointed. And I saw that made Sans regret his words. _

“l-look kid, don't take it personally. if it wasn't for the fact that doing something like that could cost me a lot of hot dogs, i'd totally do it.”

“And money. Don't forget that. We've seen your mail box.”  _ He shrugged and chuckled. _

“sorry kid.”

“Whatever... Come on Frisk. Let's keep going.”

“hey, wait.”  _ We looked at him and he pulled out another 'hot dog.'  _ “here kid. on the house.”  _ Frisk happily accepted it and bid farewell to Sans. I looked at the hot dog. It wasn't a hot dog. It was a hot cat. _


	5. It Starts

_UGH. Met. Ta. Ton! What I wouldn't have given to have thrown one of those stupid bombs at his stupid metal body. Scratch that, I would've thrown that last giant bomb at him! But of course, everything was a set up. Even if Frisk didn't 'deactivate' all the bombs in time, I knew that it was just part of the act because of Alphys. When it was finally over I groaned and Frisk looked at me, confused._

“Sorry Frisk it's just... I mean... Don't you find Mettaton a little... annoying?”  _ They shook their head and gave me a smile, telling me they quite liked him. Of course they did.  _ “Right... You seem to like everyone. Heh... I guess that's a good mindset to have.”  _ They gave me a thumbs up and we kept going. I could tell though, they were getting tired. Not only from the heat, but from the monster fights here in Hotland. The Vulkins were the opposite of helpful and the Pyropes were a bunch of assholes who liked it hot. Add that to the temperature around here... I could tell Frisk was practically dying. And what made it worse was that they were almost out of health items. And they didn't want to turn around. I sighed. _

“Hey, Frisk? Maybe we should take a break?”  _ I suggested. They nodded and when we reached the elevator, we took a short break. Frisk was sweating but they were still determined to keep moving forward.  _ “Hey, Frisk? Look, we're already here. Why don't we take the elevator down and head to Waterfall for a bit? Cool off by the waters?”  _ I could see them pondering it.  _ “Maybe we can even... back track a little and meet Gerson and get some Sea Tea, huh? We'll take the River Person's boat. Please Frisk? You're... You're worrying me.”  _ I saw that got their attention and they nodded. _

_We took the elevator all the way to the beginning and took the River Person's ferry all the way to Waterfall. Lucky for us, Gerson's shop was just north of the ferry ride. I could tell along the way, Frisk was looking better. We headed into Gerson's, Frisk bought some Sea Tea and a few Crab Apples, and we sat outside of the shop, Frisk sipping one of their Sea Teas._

“Don't you feel better Frisk?”  _ They nodded with a smile, saying it was right of me to come back here. I sighed. The echoes of the water traveling throughout the giant cave that was Waterfall sounded... Peaceful. It made me feel at peace. I sighed again. Was this worth it? Just waiting for Frisk to get to a genocide route just so I could figure out what happened? So what if I'm the only one stuck with the memories...? Maybe it's for the better. Maybe I could convince Frisk to not reset again and not go down the dark path that was genocide. I mean... I'm proof that after awhile, things can get pretty boring and one is able to lose all feeling quite quickly. _

_ Frisk asked if I was okay, which snapped me out of it. _ "O-oh, yeah Frisk. Don't worry about me. Just... Lost in thought you know?"  _ They asked me about what.  _ "No offense Frisk, but you wouldn't understand. No... You couldn't understand because you will never be able to hear me."  _ Frisk said to try them. I sighed.  _ "I have. Multiple times. And you never hear me. And you know what? It's okay. Because the things you can't hear me about... You shouldn't hear anyway."  _ Frisk looked down at their almost empty cup of Sea Tea. _

"Hey... Frisk?"  _ They looked at me.  _ "Why are you here?"  _ They shrugged. They said that they just felt a pull towards the mountain, like something just took a hold of their soul. They asked me about myself. I chuckled a little.  _ "H-heh... Sorry Frisk but... You're not that far yet... And to be honest, I hope you never get that far. There's... So many bad things that come with knowing me. I would rather you find out about myself in a more pacifistic way than... The other way."  _ They said they were confused. They then asked for my name. Of course. I never told them my name. _

"I-It's... Chara."  _ They said it was nice to meet me.  _ "Heh... Yeah..."

***

_The break was over and we headed back to Hotland. Thankfully the elevator was able to take us to where we left off. And I had completely forgot what came next. I shivered. Muffet. That greedy spider baker always gave me the creeps. I remember when we first encountered her. Her special purple attack plus her 'pet' made sparing her oh-so hard. It wasn't until the second pacifist run that Frisk figured out that we could avoid the whole fight if we had bought something from spider bake sale in the ruins._

_However, Frisk didn't have enough money at the beginning of this timeline to buy anything so... We were stuck having to fight Muffet and her pet. Frisk died. A lot. Muffet's pet was ruthless and Frisk continued to clumsily weave through the webs they were trapped in. Frisk had to take a break. We were just outside Muffet's. They said it was getting so hard. I sighed and nodded._

"Maybe we should have gotten something from the bake sale. Maybe we could've asked mom if she could get us something." _ Frisk nodded but then gave me a confused look, asking what I meant.  _ "W-Well I mean... You remember the sale prices. They were cheap and affordable. Here... Muffet's really scamming people out of their money. I mean... nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine gold for a single doughnut? I don't think so!"  _ Frisk nodded in agreement. _

"A-And you know? Maybe if we saved it and showed it to Muffet, it would show her that we weren't this... Spider hating human she thinks we are."  _ Frisk nodded again in awe. They said I had a point. Of course I did. We only went through it all almost a dozen times. We looked down the corridor. We both sighed.  _ "There's no other way around her. Guess we'll have to try again."  _ Frisk was very reluctant. They didn't want to keep going, to keep dying. They started to cry. _

"D-Don't cry Frisk! We can do it!"  _ I tried to reassure. They asked how and they admitted to their clumsiness. I sighed. They were right. Their clumsiness caused them a lot of deaths in this timeline. _

"what's the matter kiddo?"  _ We both jumped and turned to see Sans. He wasn't supposed to be here. Unless... He got tired of being reset so many times already. Frisk ran up to him, hugging him.  _ "easy there kid. it's okay. what's the matter?"

"It's Muffet."  _ I said.  _ "Frisk can't get past her special attack or her pet. I'm sure you've noticed the constant resets."

"heh. kind of hard not to notice. one can only chug a bottle of the same ketchup so many times before one doesn't want it anymore, heh heh. so, muffet's giving you a hard time, huh kid?"  _ Frisk nodded. I looked at Sans. _

"How did you know we were here?"

"you mean you don't know? mettaton's been broadcasting your entire journey through hotland all over the underground."  _ I smacked my forehead. That's right. Mettaton broadcasted everything. How could I forget? Sans chuckled.  _ "yeah. been watching your adventures from the comfort of my phone."  _ I stared at him.  _ "what? do i got something on my face?"

"Why are you deviating from the path?"

"am i? heh, well, like i said, one can only do so many things over and over again until they suddenly don't want to do it anymore."

"So then... Are you going to help us?"

"well... unless i wanna keep selling the same dog to the same monster for the next dozen times, yeah. i'm gonna help ya. that's okay with you right kid?"  _ Frisk nodded with a smile, their tears drying up.  _ "heh, nice. here, follow me. i know a shortcut that'll take you around muffet."  _ I chuckled. 'Shortcut.' I forgot that was what he called his teleporting skill. We followed him the opposite way, back towards the elevator. Frisk was holding his hand tight. They were also confused. They said to Sans that we've been this way multiple times and we never once saw a way around. He chuckled and winked at them. _

"heh, trust me kid, i know my way around."  _ I was curious myself. What was it like to travel like he did? How did he do it? He did it quite often during the genocide routes. And then, I looked up. Damn it. I was too busy with my thoughts that I missed it. We were on the other side of Muffet's domain, right before Mettaton's play and the dungeon. _

"see? what did i say? shortcut."  _ He boasted. I rolled my eyes while Frisk looked around wildly. Guess they didn't see us warp either. They stared at Sans in awe, asking how he did that. He just chuckled and winked. He then looked at me.  _ "so, is there anything else i should be worried about up ahead?"

"No."  _ I sighed.  _ "Not until we reach the resort and the CORE. If Frisk couldn't handle Muffet, it makes me wonder if they can handle the Knight Knights and Madjicks... And the tag team of Final Froggit and Whimsalot."

"uh... maybe i'll tag along."

"No need. Just meet us at MTT Resort like normal."

"normal huh? heh... so i guess that means you know what i wanted to talk to the kid about?"

"... yeah. If it wasn't for the promise you made to mom... You would have killed us."

"mom?"  _ He looked surprised. I rolled my eyes. _

"Yeah. Mom. It's what Frisk calls her. It's what we call her. She was... Very motherly... Protective... Wished only for our safety."

"could she see you too?"  _ I was silent. Oh how I wished mom was able to see me. Maybe if she did the first time around... Maybe Frisk wouldn't have reset the timeline to become a killer.  _ "aw gee, sorry kid. i didn't mean to make ya cry."  _ I looked up. I was tearing a little sure but... Frisk was crying. Frisk missed mom. I missed her too. But... I knew that if Frisk kept going, they'd see her again. We would see her again.  _ "shh. it's alright kid. i bet you miss her huh? after all, you've come such a long way."  _ He was comforting Frisk, patting them on the back as they hugged him. I... think I got jealous.  _

"where're ya goin' kid?"  _ I didn't even notice that I floated away until he said something. _

“Oh. Nowhere. When I get lost in thought I... tend to float away.”

“heh. what were ya thinkin' about?”  _ I looked down. I noticed that made him uncomfortable.  _ “ah. right. you miss her too huh?”

“I miss a lot of things Sans.”  _ I sighed.  _ “You should go Sans. Go the resort. Wait for us there because... Frisk really does need to hear what you have to say.”

“sure kid.”  _ He looked at Frisk and ruffled their hair, giving them a smile.  _ “well bucko, i'll see ya later. be a little more careful alright?”  _ Frisk nodded and Sans turned around and walked towards Muffet's area, disappearing into the dark. _

“Well Frisk, we should get moving.”  _ They nodded and went to walk forward, only to stop and stare at the poster on the wall. They said they found it interesting. I chuckled a little. They had no idea. _

***

_I swear, Mettaton makes me want to throw him into the lava, only my reason wasn't because I got annoyed with him, it was because he made Frisk panic in the 'dungeon,' causing them to almost have a heart attack because they couldn't get through that stupid colored tile maze. And when it was over, Frisk was sweating. Those flames were a little too close. When we left, Frisk saw the Nice Cream rabbit. They needed something cold but... I knew what the rabbit was gonna say._

“Sorry kid. Those two knights over there bought everything I had!”  _ Frisk looked at him, disappointed, before looking over at the two knights who were enjoying themselves. Frisk smiled. It was weird. Sure Frisk got them to open up to each other about their feelings but... Frisk themselves were practically dying. Well, luckily for Frisk, the resort was just north. _

“Come on Frisk. Maybe we can rest up ahead.”  _ They nodded and we headed north and low and behold, there was the MTT Resort. I looked around. There was the note left by Bratty and Katty on the floor to the right but... Sans wasn't around. Where was he? Frisk noticed the note and read it before looking at the alleyway on the right with suspicion. I knew the two dumpster girls had nothing of value except for an old key that went to Mettaton's home back in Waterfall but... I don't think Frisk would want to backtrack that far. _

“I... Don't trust that Frisk. Maybe we should head inside. Cool off.”  _ They nodded and before they could move, they jumped in surprise when Sans tapped their shoulder. _

“heh. sorry there kiddo. didn't mean to startle ya.”  _ He chuckled. He then looked over Frisk.  _ “wow kid. no offense but, you look awful.”

“Gee, thanks Sans. That wasn't rude at all.”  _ I said sarcastically, crossing my arms. _

“sorry, sorry. say, why don't you and i head inside and grab something to eat huh? your treat?”  _ Frisk gave him the look of 'are you serious?' before he laughed.  _ “i'm just kiddin'. it's on me kid, i swear. come on. i know a shortcut.”  _ He said with a wink before heading towards the alleyway on the left. Frisk followed him, confused, and the next thing we knew, we were inside the resort's restaurant. Frisk looked around, confused as could be, before looking at Sans. He chuckled.  _ “see? shortcut.”  _ I sighed. I knew what was coming next. Frisk wasn't going to like it, that's for sure. They never did the first time we went through this. _

_ I looked at the table. There was an actual meal waiting for us. That never happened. Frisk's stomach growled. Sans chuckled.  _ “go on kid.  _ Bone  _ appetite."  _ He winked. Frisked chuckled. I groaned. _ "i'm sure you're hungry.”  _ Frisk immediately started to eat and I looked at Sans. All he had on his side was a bottle of ketchup. _

“Nothing for you Sans?”  _ I asked. He winked and held up the bottle. _

“nah. i'm good with just a drink.”  _ I stared at him.  _ “what's up kid? why're ya lookin' at me like that?”

“You've never done this before.”

“done what?”

“Feed us.”

“yeah, well... i could it see on the screen that the kiddo needed a good break. you know, now that i think about it, you two haven't exactly had a chance to properly rest ever since you came to snowdin.”  _ I could feel Frisk's exhaustion. Sans was right... somewhat. We did actually spend a night in the Temmie Village but... after that... all the resets and the long trek through Hotland... Frisk needed some time to recover properly.  _

“Well... as true as that is... we can't stay in the resort. We barely have any gold. Frisk was gonna spend it all on nice cream but the vendor was sold out.”

“huh. sounds like quite the predicament. say, why don't you guys just crash back at my place until you feel ready?”  _ I looked at him in surprise.  _ “what?”

“That's... deviating far from the path.”  _ He chuckled and winked. _

“is it now? weird. so... what? you're just gonna let the kid suffer?”

“Wh-! No, of course not!”

“so then it's settled. after this, we'll head to snowdin, you two can relax and then when you're ready, you can come back here to hotland and continue on your quest. i'm sure mettaton won't mind.”

“B-But the CORE is right beyond those doors! We're so close!”  _ Frisk stopped me, saying it was okay. That we really needed the break anyway. So what if we backtracked a little? I stared at them before sighing in defeat.  _ “Alright. We'll go rest in Snowdin.”  _ I could practically hear Sans' grin. _

“great. i'm sure paps and undyne would be thrilled to see ya.”  _ Frisk gave a big smile. They said it had been awhile since we last spoke with them. Sans lifted a... skeletal eyebrow.  _ “i mean, no offense kid but... don't you have papyrus' number? you could've called.”  _ Frisk looked down. Said they forgot. That they-  _ “take it easy kid. i know you've been under some stress since comin' to hotland. it's understandable. just be warned though, papyrus gives tight hugs.”  _ He chuckled. Frisk laughed. They said they wouldn't mind it. _

_I stared. The path... The path was deviating. It made me wonder what exactly was going to happen next. I looked at Sans as he and Frisk chatted a little more and not once... did he follow the script. He didn't tell Frisk his story. He didn't leave us in the restaurant. It made me wonder if he even was going to tell his story to Frisk. Did that story even matter anymore?_


	6. Deviation

_Snowdin. Sans transported us there via his 'shortcut' and we came walking out of the shed. We definitely surprised Papyrus and Undyne, who were chatting it up on the porch._

“HUMAN! HOW NICE TO SEE YOU AGAIN! WHAT BRINGS YOU BY SNOWDIN?” 

“the kid's here to rest a little bit paps. they've been through some rough things and need a break.”  _ Papyrus gasped. _

“I SEE! SO DOES THAT MEAN THEY'LL BE SLEEPING OVER? OOH! WE COULD HAVE A GREAT BIG SLUMBER PARTY! JUST ME, YOU, UNDYNE, AND THE HUMAN!”

“Pfft. A slumber party? Slumber parties are for nerds.”

“OH. WELL, YOU DON'T HAVE TO JOIN UNDYNE. I GUESS IF YOU JUST CAN'T DO IT, YOU CAN'T DO IT!”

“What?! I can so!”  _ Hook, line and sinker. I chuckled. I noticed Sans looking at me. _

“What?”  _ I asked. He winked. _

“hook, line and sinker. you just thought of that didn't you?”  _ I stared before crossing my arms and looking away. _

“N-No...”  _ I lied. I was actually flustered. He chuckled. _

“yeaaaah ya did.”  _ He finger gunned me and I rolled my eyes and looked at Papyrus and Undyne and Frisk. Undyne was 'noogie-ing the skeleton,' Papyrus wasn't enjoying it, and Frisk was laughing. I smiled. I liked that image. I wanted it forever. _

***

“SO! WHAT FUN ACTIVITIES CAN WE DO DURING THIS WONDERFUL SLEEPOVER? I'VE... NEVER ACTUALLY BEEN TO ONE.”

“i think that's up to the host bro. whaddya wanna do?”

“WELL...”

“Oh! Whenever I would hang with Alphys at her lab, we would watch these human movies and I remember one of them showed how humans have sleepovers! Let's do that! For the human!”  _ I sighed and rolled my eyes as I watched the coming night start to unfold. I totally forgot that Undyne didn't know the difference between the actual human research Alphys did and... anime. I shuddered. I looked at Frisk, who was having a grand time with Papyrus and Undyne. Sans sat on the couch next to me. _

“what's wrong kid? not enjoying yourself?”

“How can I when I can't touch anything or speak to anyone?”  _ I sighed.  _ “It's going to be a long night.”

“well, you can always talk to me.”  _ I looked at him and he shrugged. _

“Again... It's going to be a LONG night.”

“can you even sleep?”

“I mean... I dunno. In all the past timelines, be it pacifist or genocide... Frisk really plowed through it all. They barely took a break. And when they did, it was only for a brief moment and in that moment, it was like they got all their strength back and their dreariness went away.”

“huh... and they haven't done that now?”

“No, which is odd. We've had to backtrack to Waterfall just to get some food and healing items and to cool off Frisk because... they were practically burning up alive in Hotland.”

“yeah, hotland isn't for those who can't brave the heat. i mean, the only way undyne can survive a trip to hotland is if she-”

“Applied special cream to her scales that helped her retain water.”  _ He looked at me and I shrugged.  _ “Like I said, I know everything.”

“heh, yeah well... never know if you might've missed something.”  _ I sighed. _

“I wish. Maybe if I didn't know everything, it might make going through this pacifist run a bit more... fun. But no. Frisk wanted to find out about EVERYTHING there was to know in the previous timelines.”

“Hey Sans! Stop talking to yourself and get over here and help think of an activity we can do!”  _ We both looked over at Undyne. She, Papyrus and Frisk were at the table and on it was a bunch of pieces of paper scattered all on top. I stared in confusion a little at the sight of the mess. Frisk laughed and said that they were ideas we could all do for the sleepover tonight.  _

“activity huh? sounds like a lot of work.”

“COME ON SANS! DON'T YOU WANT TO HAVE FUN WITH US?”  _ Sans chuckled and stood up. _

“heh, 'course i do bro.”  _ He walked over to the table and I stared as everyone turned their backs towards me. I sighed. Yeah. Definitely gonna be a long night. Frisk's voice made me open my eyes. They were sitting next to me, looking at me all worried and the like. They asked if I was okay. _

“Peachy.”  _ I said sarcastically, rolling my eyes. Frisk asked if there was anything they could do so that I wouldn't feel left out.  _ “N-No Frisk. Unless you can get Undyne and Papyrus to see me as well and magically somehow get me my senses back... There's nothing you can do.”  _ Frisk apologized. I sighed.  _ “It's... not your fault Frisk.”  _ Actually it was all their fault. They reset the timeline again and I got stuck with these memories. Frisk usually warned me whenever they reset. But they didn't this time. And it sucked. _

_Frisk asked if there was a way to get Undyne and Papyrus to notice me. They asked me how I got Sans' attention. I thought about that. Could Sans see me from the beginning? Or... did threatening to kill Papyrus put him on the same wavelength as me? I looked at Frisk._

“I uh... I dunno really Frisk. I mean... I don't really know how Sans noticed me. I guess I could ask him...”  _ Frisk smiled and nodded, urging me to go talk to Sans.  _ “N-Nah, I don't wanna bother him right now-”  _ Frisk called Sans' name, to which he turned around and looked at us. Frisk beckoned him over and he approached.  _ “Or you can... do that...”

“what's up kiddo?”  _ Frisk asked him how he was able to see me. He shrugged.  _ “honestly kid? i dunno. one moment they weren't there and the next, poof. there they were.”

“Is that true? Or are you just being an ass again?”

“i swear on my soul kid. one second you weren't there, the next you were... shouting at me.”  _ That made me think. So my threat made him see me. So then... did I connect with him on some kind of level?  _ “why? what's up kid?”  _ Frisk said I was getting lonely and feeling left out, to which I stared at Frisk and immediately said, _

“I am not lonely and I am not feeling left out!” _ I was a little flustered. Sans chuckled. _

“i knew it.”

“Sh-Shut up!”  _ Frisk said that they wanted me to find a way to show myself to Papyrus and Undyne. I tried to cover their mouth but I just phased right through them.  _ “F-Frisk! Shut up!”

“huh. finding a way huh? i would suggest doing to them what you did to me buuuut... they probably wouldn't like that.”  _ I crossed my arms and looked away. _

“I'm not doing anything! I'm not lonely and I don't feel left out! I don't care if no one can or can't see me!”

“i think you mean 'anyone' not 'no one.'”

“Whatever!”  _ I threw my hands up and phased out the window and sat at the outside. I didn't need to look back to know that Frisk was giving me a worried look. I could just feel it... And I pondered on that thought. Frisk and I... We always seemed to know how the other was feeling. And then the thought of why I woke up to Frisk falling down entered my mind again. Why did I wake up, or rather... Why was I bound to Frisk? What made them special...? My attention was dragged away from myself as I saw Asriel not far off from the house by the shed. He was smiling to himself. I wondered what he was thinking. I wondered if I could get close enough to hear him. _

_It was worth a shot. I floated over. I could just barely make it. I was only a few feet away from him. I looked at him. He was chuckling to himself._

"Almost there."  _ He was saying to himself.  _ "All they gotta do is get through the CORE. It's so easy."  _ I sighed. Something about Asriel's murder mood wasn't striking with me. I mean, yeah he was in a murder mood all the time but... This time seemed different. I mean... I knew why he was like this. No soul. Can't feel a thing. Doesn't want this game to end. But... I don't have a soul either, so how come I can feel? _

"Ch... Chara?"  _ I looked at Asriel. He was staring at me, complete shock on his face. Why could he see me?  _ "N-no... It can't be."

"A-Asriel?"  _ I was stunned too. We both stared at each other for what seemed like forever. Until I looked away.  _ "So... Now you can see me. This will definitely make things awkward."

"C-Chara? How are you...? Is it really...?

"I mean, kind of Azzy. I'm... Bound to Frisk. Wherever they go, I go."  _ I saw the conflict on his face.  _ "Yeah. I don't understand it either."

"This... Can't be possible."

"It is. I mean, look at you. You died and then came back as a soulless, murderous flower."  _ He stared at me, shocked I knew such a thing.  _ "Oh Azzy... If only I could tell you what I know."

"What... Do you know?"

"That's just it... I know... EVERYTHING. And yet... You won't be able to recall anything because your memory got wiped clean."

"... You're bluffing."

"Am I oh 'God Of Hyper Death.'"  _ He stared at me. He was shaking.  _ "Asriel... The game... It's beginning to change."

"Wh-What?"

"What you're witnessing right now with Frisk... It never should have happened, but it did. Something has happened to the game Asriel. The outcome is changing."

"N-no. That's impossible. The human WILL get to Asgore and the human WILL kill him! I WILL take his soul and the other six human souls and become a GOD!"

"And what if Frisk found a way around that?"

"Impossible! It is inevitable!"  _ I stared. _

"How do you know that Asriel? Do... Do you actually have your memories? Of before the last true reset?"  _ He was silent and he stared at me. _

"T-True reset? What are you talking about? This is just a game Chara! A game I have played over and over again and there were so many key features in the game that did not change! The human killing Asgore is one of those key features! They cannot avoid it!"

"... We shall see."  _ Asriel glared at me before giving me a smile. _

"It's not too late Chara. Manipulate that human. Get them to kill Asgore. Now that I know that you're bound to them, you and I... We can do so much together Chara."  _ I stared blankly at him before chuckling. _

"If I had a piece of gold for every time I heard that."

"Wh-What?"  _ Asriel looked at me, scared. I knew what was happening to me. My face. My eyes. _

" _**DoN't yOu geT It BRoTheR?** _ "  _ My voice was distorted.  _ " _**CreAturES lIKe us wouLDn't hesITATE tO kilL EacH OthEr if wE goT in tHe othERs wAY.** _ "  _ He was shaking. I chuckled.  _ " _**You haVe nO idEA hoW maNy TIMes I've WatChed FriSK CuT yoU dOwn inTo muLch. DoEsn'T thaT souND juSt awFUl brOTheR?** _ "

"Y-You're scaring me Chara...!"

"hey, kid. maybe you should take it easy."  _ I looked up, Asriel turned around. Sans. He was just leaning against the shed.  _ "sheesh kid, go wash your face or something. you're looking awful."

"You-! Huh?! I can't move!" _Blue shaded bones surrounded Asriel really closely, all at an angle._ _When I took a closer look at Sans, I saw he was using his magic to keep Asriel in place. The angle was probably to keep Asriel's roots still so he wouldn't escape._

"yeah. i'm keepin' ya grounded here for a sec. gotta say, i'm a little interested in what you and the kid have been talkin' about."  _ He looked at me.  _ "lookin' quite frighten' there kid. why don't ya calm down? tell me what's goin' on."

" _**YoU wouLdn'T unDErstAnd.** _ "  _ He shrugged. _

"maybe i won't, but kid you can't keep these things bottled up."  _ I stared at him. Did he really just say that? I chuckled, which grew into a laugh. I laughed and laughed and laughed. _

"Oh that's  _**RiCh** _ ! Coming from someone like  _**yOu** _ !"  _ I laughed some more.  _ "Coming from  _**tHe** _ most secretive person in  _**AlL** _ of the underground!" 

"look kid, you said you would keep frisk from becoming a murderer if i could deviate their path. i've been keeping my part of the deal, you need to keep yours."  _ I stopped and stared at him. I glared at him. He knew what he was doing. Why was I surprised?  _ "you really don't want to break our deal now, right kid?"  _ That stupid grin. I hated it. Asriel was just confused. _

"Wh-What? What are you talking about?"

"oh, yeah. i know all about this 'game' you two think this is. thinkin' that there's no consequences for your actions? well news flash pal, there are always consequences."  _ How did he know this? Or was it maybe... He was piecing everything together? He wasn't stupid, I know that. He's actually very smart, he just chooses not to show it. I then heard Asriel gasp before he disappeared into the ground. The bone barrier was gone. I looked at Sans. He was giving me a blank stare. _

"Tch, what?"

"wanna tell me what that was all about? what happened with your face? your voice? your attitude?"  _ I scoffed and rolled my eyes. _

"I don't need to explain myself to you- Huh!"  _ That feeling. The feeling of my body getting heavy. I looked at Sans. He was using his magic on me now. How?! I had no soul for him to control! ... Right? And then it hit me. I was feeling what Frisk was feeling.  _ "Let go of Frisk Sans!"  _ He tilted his head. _

"frisk? nah, you got it all wrong kid."  _ He motioned his hand and I stared in disbelief. Floating towards his hand was a grey soul. Like a monster's but it wasn't upside down.  _ "i've got YOUR soul. looks like ya got one after all. i mean, of course you did though. if you didn't, i wouldn't have been able to see your LV and EXP."  _ I stared. Of course. The only way to see a monster's statistics was if they had a soul. Why didn't I see that before when he mentioned that? _

_ I looked at the soul in his hand. It was glitching. Why? What was wrong with me?  _ "now, i'm no soul expert but... i'm pretty sure a soul ain't supposed to do that. but,"  _ He shrugged.  _ "in your case, it might be normal."

"My case?"

"think about it kid. you claim to have knowledge that no one here is supposed to know. you got memories that no one else can remember. you just keep saying this is a game. the buggy communication you have with frisk."  _ I stared.  _ "now, this is just a theory but... i have a feeling you're not supposed to be here kid. i think... you kicked out a different version of yourself. the real you who's supposed to be in this timeline."  _ Was that true? Was I... In the wrong timeline? Because Frisk risked a lot to get the information I now know, I knew that there were such things as alternative timelines where things were WAY different than the normal timeline. If Sans was right then... What happened to my timeline? _

_I felt my body be released from Sans' power. I looked at him. He gave me a smile._

"look kid... everything has already happened. you can't go back. i mean... unless frisk decides to reset all the way to the beginning. but even then, you'll still be you, stuck in this timeline. so, instead of cryin' about it, why don't you do what you couldn't do in your timeline?"  _ I stared at him. He chuckled. _

"yeah. i knew who you were from the moment you popped into existence. you were one of asgore's kids. he has a picture hidden away in his home. but... you died a long, long time ago kid. makes me wonder what you're doing here now."

"That's what I want to know. Why am I bound to Frisk? Why was Frisk able to wake me up?"

"i think i may know."  _ I looked at him. He winked.  _ "you two... you have very similar souls. almost like twins. i think... you 'woke up and became bound to frisk' because they were very similar to you."  _ I stared. Was that really the answer? I looked down at my hands. I always thought I was without a soul but... Sans proved me wrong. I had one, and it was messed up badly. It had to have been from all the resets. But then... That could only mean... Was Frisk... My reincarnate? That wasn't possible. Asriel absorbed my soul and it shattered when we crossed the barrier back to home. _

_ A thought then came to me. Our soul may have shattered and Asriel may have turned to dust but... My body was still in one piece. Was it possible that... shards of my soul... stayed within my body?  _ "say, why don't we go back inside? frisk is worried about ya you know."  _ He made his way around me as I stay still. No. I had to ask him. _

"A-Are you messing with me?"  _ I heard the snow stop crunching. I looked at him. He had turned his head towards me.  _ "Well?"

"sorry kid. i don't know what you mean. think you can be a little more specific?"  _ I clenched my hands into fists. _

"I know you're not stupid. You're smarter than anyone else here in the underground, smarter than Alphys. So tell me, are you messing with me? How much do you actually know?"  _ We stared at each other before he chuckled and shrugged. _

"i don't know much kid. everything i'm thinking is just a theory. i have no way to tell if they're true or not."

"Like what?"

"like you. you have so much LV and EXP stored in your soul... how do i know you're not gonna break the deal we made and take over frisk's body and kill everyone?"  _ I stared. He wasn't wrong. I did take over Frisk's body when they gave me their soul for a chance to 'make things right' and killed everyone over again for the second genocide run. But... I was bored with everything now. There would be no reason to have Frisk suddenly start killing. It wouldn't have been entertaining, considering we've done it a few times before; start on a pacifist run and then halfway through go on a killing spree, though the outcome was nothing like the genocide run. It was the neutral run. _

"knock knock? anybody home?"  _ I looked at him before glancing at the house.  _ "i asked ya a question kid."

"Tch. Yeah, yeah I heard you."  _ I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms only to feel my body get heavy and pulled towards him. His grin was still there but he was staring at me with just one giant eye light.  _ "Tch. Don't get your bones so rattled Sans. I'm not gonna do anything. You all are gonna be fine. No one's killing anybody... Unless Frisk deems it. I can't control Frisk until they give me their soul. And since that hasn't happened yet in this supposed timeline, they are acting on their own. And I can't influence them because they can't hear me talk about what I went through. So it's hard to break a deal like this."

_He stared at me before blinking. He had two eye lights and my body was released. He gave a stupid grin._

"good to hear."  _ I rolled my eyes. _

"I can TRY and keep them on the path of good, but like I said... It's all up to Frisk..."

"or?"  _ I rolled my eyes. There actually was an 'or' option. _

"OR... You can try and deviate from the path and make Frisk notice. I... Have a theory."

"let's hear it."  _ I rolled my eyes, again. I swear if I rolled any harder I could be able to see the back of my head. _

"I feel... If too many deviations were to occur... The game will change. The world will change. Frisk will change. And... That's something that's needed. There's a... High probability that once Frisk breaks the barrier, they will never reset again, at least... They won't reset everything to the very beginning."

"huh. interesting theory. and high probability huh? i think i'll take those chances."  _ I chuckled. _

"Pfft. Yeah well, it'll require a lot of work since Frisk is THIS close to completing the game. And I know how much you hate a lot of work."

"if it means the kid won't turn into a psychopath, i can spare some of my strength for this cause. so, what else can we do to 'deviate from the path?"  _ I stared. I sighed. I had to tell him everything I knew. But...  _ "what's up kid?"  _ I guess it was obvious on my face. _

"I... We've been out here for awhile. I can... Tell you everything but... Later. Frisk is getting worried."  _ I looked at the house. In the window was Frisk, Papyrus and Undyne looking out. Undyne and Papyrus confused, Frisk worried. Sans turned around and gave everyone a smile and wave. Undyne opened the window. _

"Come on Sans, what are you doing out there? Get in here already! The human has already picked the first activity!"

"THEY CALL IT 'TWISTER!' DOESN'T THAT SOUND FUN?" Sans _ chuckled. _

"twister? sounds easy. i mean, i have one in my room after all."  _ He looked at me and gestured with his head for us to go in. I sighed and floated passed him, hearing the crunching of the snow beneath his feet as he followed me into the house. It was going to be a long night. _


	7. Field Trip

_Frisk called my name. I opened my eyes. The room was dark-ish, the only light source around was from the television playing yet another Mettaton show. I looked at Frisk. They and Undyne were stuck on the couch, even though Papyrus offered to switch Frisk places but Frisk refused. They carefully shuffled off the couch, as to try and not wake up Undyne. The night was a little crazy. Undyne kept getting upset at the 'Twister' game because she kept falling so she tore the paper up. After that, everyone competed to try and make the 'best sleep over snack' with whatever Sans and Papyrus had in their kitchen. Needless to say, Frisk won. After that, everyone enjoyed their own snacks while watching Mettaton shows and movies._

"What is it Frisk?" _They said they didn't feel good. That they had a bad dream._ "A bad dream huh? What about?" _They were silent, looking down at the floor, shuffling. I looked at them curiously. They were uncomfortable. They then looked like they were about to cry. Wait. No. They cried. I flinched and lowered to their level._ "I-It's alright Frisk. It was just a dream. Dreams aren't real." _I heard shuffling and looked to see Undyne stirring awake before looking at Frisk. When she heard them crying she jolted up._

"Whoa, hey. Hey punk. What's wrong?" _Frisk turned to her, apologizing for waking her up. Undyne picked them up and placed them next to her._ "Don't worry about me. What's up with you? What's making you cry?" _Frisk said they had a bad dream. Undyne gave them a surprised look before giving them a smile, ruffling their hair._ "Don't worry punk. I wouldn't let anything happen to ya! You know what I do when I have a bad dream?" _Frisk shook their head._ "I beat it up in the next dream!" Frisk chuckled, I rolled my eyes.

"Of course." _I said._ "Leave it to Undyne to have the fighting approach." _Frisk said that sounded like an interesting thought but their dream involved fighting and it got scary. I got curious._ "What do you mean Frisk?" T _hey said that at first the dream started off okay, but then it turned scary as they were suddenly watching all the friends they made disappear and turn to dust. Undyne stared before glancing away, rubbing her neck._

"A-Ah. That does sound like a scary dream." _She gave them a smile._ "But don't worry punk. That won't ever happen. Not so long as I'm around." _I stared at Frisk. If their dream started good and then turned bad, then they had to have dreamed about a neutral run at least. That was... Interesting, considering everything._ "Ah geez. Another rerun?" _Undyne broke my thoughts._ "I guess when you run out of ideas, you run out of ideas, even if you're a mega movie star."

 _Frisk wondered if their adventure in Hotland could be found. Undyne looked at them with a smile._ "Oh yeah! I totally forgot about that! Though... I guess with you missing, Mettaton can't proceed. Meh, I find that a win though. I mean... He uh... Was built to get your soul..."

"Way to bring down the mood Undyne." _I said, rolling my eyes._

"Look, I didn't mean it-" _We both stopped and stared, me more so at Undyne as Undyne was looking around._ "Wait... Who said that?" _She then manifested a spear and kept Frisk close. So she heard me, but she couldn't see me. Yet._ "Whoever said that you better come out before I force you out!" Frisk _tried calming Undyne. She gave them a confused look. They tried explaining that she heard me. They then pointed to me and Undyne looked right past me._

"Wait, wait, wait. You're telling me... That you have a ghost following you?"

"More like bound." _I said. Undyne raised her spear again but Frisk grabbed her hand, lowering the spear._

"Well... Stop hiding and get out here!"

"I am. For some reason you just can't see me... Which is interesting." Frisk _said that I was around since they came to the underground. I was around during the sleep over too. That I was who Sans was talking to outside earlier._

"Wait, Sans can see you? Can Papyrus?"

"No." _I sighed._ "Unfortunately the taller brother can't. At least, not yet." _Undyne made her spear disappear and right after both the brother's room doors opened, both walking out tired._

"WHAT'S WITH ALL THE NOISE?"

"Er, sorry guys. Kid had a bad dream and-"

"OH NO!" _Papyrus quickly made his way down the stairs and placed himself on Frisk's other side, giving them a hug._ "BAD DREAMS ARE THE WORST! BUT NEVER FEAR HUMAN! NOW THAT I'M HERE MY GREATNESS WILL CHASE OFF THOSE BAD DREAMS!"

"Hey! I already told them I would do that!"

"WELL NOW THEY HAVE TWICE THE PROTECTION!" _Frisk was smiling, giggling. They said they appreciated everyone's concerns. I didn't even notice Sans come down and ruffle Frisk's hair, giving them a smile._

"aint you lucky kid? you got the coolest person in all the underground AND the captain of the royal guard protectin' ya."

"Hey! I'm cool!"

"pfft! yeah, sure but not at cool as papyrus." _I stared. They were all so happy. Sans glanced back at me, to which I crossed my arms and looked away. Undyne must've noticed it for she said,_

"O-Oh, right. Another thing. I guess there's a ghost attached to the kid." _I saw Sans look at her, a bit surprised, and Papyrus give her a confused look._

"A GHOST? OH! DID THEY PERHAPS CAUSE YOUR BAD DREAM?" _I stared in disbelief before closing my mouth. Was it possible...? Did I give them a bad dream? I mean... I was lost in thought before Frisk woke up. Frisk shook their head, saying it was just a bad dream and I had nothing to do with it._

"Chara? That's their name?" _Undyne asked. I stared at Frisk. Damn it Frisk._

"CHARA? WHAT A UNIQUE SOUNDING NAME!" _Papyrus stood up and said while looking around,_ "IT IS NICE TO MEET YOU CHARA, WHEREVER YOU MAY BE!"

"they're right here bro." _I looked at Sans as he stood next to me, pointing at me. Papyrus gawked._

"YOU CAN SEE THEM SANS? HOW COME I CAN'T?" _Sans shrugged._

"i dunno bro. maybe they're not at your level of cool for you to see them."

"NO ONE CAN BE AS COOL AS I AM RIGHT NOW! BUT... I CAN TONE DOWN MY COOLNESS SOMEWHAT." _He looked at me, or at least tried. His sockets moved around as he spoke. I rolled my eyes only to notice Sans give me a warning glance. I rolled them the other way._ "GREETINGS GHOST CHARA! TELL ME, WHAT KIND OF MONSTER GHOST ARE YOU? I'VE ONLY MET ONE GHOST BEFORE. HE IS UNDYNE'S NEIGHBOR BUT HE HAS NO MONSTER ATTRIBUTES." _I knew Papyrus wouldn't be able to hear me so I didn't attempt to speak. Frisk though... They said I was a human ghost, to which Undyne and Papyrus stared at them in surprise._

"Whoa. So like... There's two humans here?" _Undyne asked, totally bewildered._

"ANOTHER HUMAN! HOW EXCITING! I JUST WISH I COULD SEE THEM!"

"well? aren't you gonna say something kid? you can at least try to get on my bro's level of coolness." _I scoffed._

"Fat chance. I don't even know how I got on Undyne's level." _Undyne chuckled._

"Maybe I should talk more with my neighbor. He is ghost so maybe-"

"It won't work." _I interrupted. She tried looking in my direction, since Sans was still next to me, but she just looked through me._

"Oh yeah? How do you know punk?"

"Because... I'm different. It's... Hard to explain-"

"WHAT ARE THEY SAYING?" _I flinched and sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. I was annoyed._

"what's wrong kid?" _Sans asked. I ruffled my hair, messing it up severely and let out a groan._

"I can't...! I... I need to be alone!" _And then I fell through the living room floor, down into the basement. I wondered if I should hide in the walls, just in case Sans tried coming after me for 'being rude.' I nodded to the idea and slipped into the wall. I sighed. Silence. I needed it. All this attention... I wasn't liking it. I heard muffled voices from above but they were way too muffled to make out anything._

_Next thing I knew my body got heavy. What?! How did he find me?! I got pulled out of the wall, only, I headed up. Towards the living room. I fought furiously on the way up and when my head come through the floor, first thing I did was scream. I could tell I startled Sans for his grip on me vanished and I went right back into the floor. I could hear Frisk say that maybe it was a good idea to just leave me alone._

_God damn it Frisk. They were saying how I was feeling. Overwhelmed. I didn't like it. I went as far as I could, away from Frisk. I could feel their sadness. It was stupid._

***

_I didn't realize how much time has passed. Next thing I knew, I was moving a little, which meant Frisk was moving. How long was I under, I wondered? I heard a muffled voice. It wasn't all that clear but it sounded close. I then jumped when I heard knocking on the wall I was in and a muffled,_

"knock knock." _I rolled my eyes and stayed silent._ "heh. you're supposed to say 'who's there?' so, knock knock?" _I wasn't in the mood for him. What did he even want? I heard a sigh._ "hey kid. you know, frisk is worried about you." _I scoffed. I obviously knew that._ "well, i know that you'll be forced to come for the ride but i thought i would let you know we're all taking a trip to waterfall right after breakfast." _Waterfall? Why Waterfall? The River Person's boat was just north of town. Frisk and I could take it straight to Hotland and continue towards the CORE. Unless... Sans was deviating even more._

_I sighed. He really was keeping his end of the deal. Just... Why did it have to happen when we were THIS close to completing the game? ... Or maybe... Was it because we were close that he stepped up? Now that I thought about, the next time we would've ran into Sans after MTT Resort was in... The Judgement Hall. By then, it definitely would have been too late. Asgore would've been just ahead and Frisk would have to fight him, watch him die, defeat Asriel and then reset slightly to break the barrier whilst saving everyone._

_That's how it went. That's how it always went. So then I wondered... What would be the deviation this time?_

***

_I finally decided to peek myself out. I regretted it immediately for Frisk stopped and looked at me, and they were in front of everyone, which made them stop._

"What's up?" _Undyne asked. Frisk said I had showed up. They said it with a smile. I grumbled and slowly lifted myself out of the ground, arms crossed._

"glad you could finally join us." _Sans said, winking at me._ "so, you done pouting?"

"I don't pout."

"heh! i beg to differ." _I covered my ears at Papyrus' voice._

"GOOD MORNING DEAR HUMAN GHOST FRIEND!" _I wanted to retreat back into the ground but Frisk urged me to stay. I sighed and rolled my eyes._

"Only if Papyrus lowers his voice." _I noticed everyone look at Papyrus, to which he looked at them all, confused._

"WHAT?" _He asked._

"Uh... The punk says they'll stick around if you... Lower your voice some."

"OH." _I saw how much that disturbed him and while everyone was looking at Papyrus, Sans shot me an empty socket look. I rolled my eyes._

"don't listen to the kid bro." _Sans said, turning to his brother._ "I bet they're just not a morning person."

"SANS, YOU AREN'T A MORNING PERSON."

"i am when i get a good breakfast in me."

"OH! ARE THEY HUNGRY THEN?" _I couldn't stand it. I sank back into the ground only for my body to be heavy halfway in and I get pulled back up._

"Let me go!" _That got everyone's attention, making them look._ "Let me go you sorry sack of bones!"

"i don't think so. i think you had enough time sulkin'. c'mon kid, join us. let's look at the cave ceiling together. it gets really pretty this time of day." _I continued to struggle, wrestling the blue force that had taken over my body. Sans sighed._ "trust me kid, i'd keep you up with us, but it's a lot of hard work keepin' you soul still. i'm not strong enough for that."

"Then let me go!" _I was ignored._

"instead, i think i'll let papyrus handle ya."

"WHAT?!" _We both said. Sans gave him a wink._

"yeah bro. it's not that hard. i already got their soul." _He held up his hand and everyone stared at the glitching soul in it. Right. Frisk never saw my soul. They turned to look at me._

"Whoa it's... Like a monster's but it's not." _Undyne said, amazed._

"NOT TO MENTION IT'S FREAKING OUT! IS THE HUMAN GHOST OKAY?"

"they're fine bro. that's just how their soul is. so, here ya go papyrus. keep 'em above ground okay?"

"I-I DON'T KNOW SANS. THAT'S VERY... FORCIBLE." _Frisk said to let me go. I stared at them. They had a worried smile on their face. I glanced away. I felt my body get released and, on accident, I went flying upwards, letting out a... Surprised yelp to say the least. Frisk giggled, Sans smirked smugly, Undnye looked around._

"What happened?"

"kid went flying. guess it was from the constant struggling." _I grumbled as I made my way back down, arms folded. I floated in front of Frisk, giving an annoyed stare._

"It's not funny." _Frisk smiled. They said that everything was going to be okay. They asked me to stay above ground. That they really missed my company. I sighed. I would've been lying if I said I didn't somewhat... Miss theirs too. They giggled._

"S-Stop reading my feelings!" _I was flustered. I hated it. And then, their phone rang. Everyone stared at Frisk as they answered it._

 _"_ H-H-Hey! I-I see that you're in-in Waterfall!" _I sighed. It was Alphys._ "I-I uh... G-got worried wh-when you didn't appear on the cameras after w-walking up to the resort. Y-You just vanished." _Frisk apologized and told her what happened._ "I-I see... Y-Yes I can see the... The whole gang is together. That's... That's neat." _I remembered how reclusive Alphys was. I then remembered that the only way she got out of her lab was when Frisk reset after Asriel and from a very hilarious misunderstanding, went on a date with Frisk._

"Oh yeah. She confesses her love for Undyne..." _I had no idea I said that out loud until Undyne exclaimed, making everyone jump,_

"WHAT?! What do you mean 'confesses her love for me?!"

"O-O-Oh my G-G-God! Wh-What?! Wh-where-where in the world d-did that come fr-from all of a s-sudden?! I-I don't know wh-what you're t-t-talking about!" _I could practically hear the blush coming off Alphys' face through the phone and I looked at Undyne, who was staring straight at me. Full on. I groaned. Now she could see me. Behind her blush was shock as she stared._

"Whooaaaaa! They look just like Frisk!" _She said. I sighed and gave a little wave. Just a little one. Sans shrugged and Papyrus pouted._

"I WANT TO SEE THE GHOST HUMAN TOO!"

"Paps I'm serious! They look just like Frisk only they have..." _She stopped and stared at me, right into my eyes. I could tell I made her uncomfortable. I had come to notice that after the first genocide route, my red eyes were seen by Sans as something of pure evil._

"HAVE WHAT UNDYNE?"

"U-Uh... They have... D-Different clothes on." _I looked down in thought. I wasn't exactly glaring at her. I gave her a pretty neutral face. So why did she freak out when she stared into my eyes? Sans showed everyone my soul and yet none of them seemed to notice my large amount of LV and EXP that was present in my soul. Maybe... Maybe Undyne saw something in my eyes._

"H-Hey. What's g-going on?" _Right. Alphys. I watched as Undyne grabbed Frisk's phone and say with a smile while looking in all directions,_

"Hey Al! You should come join us! We're gonna show the human the best spot in all of Waterfall to look at the cave ceiling!"

"O-O-Oh... I-I shouldn't uh... I-I have a-a lot of work to do-"

"Aw c'mon Alphys! It's gonna be fun!" _I heard silence before a click. Alphys had hung up in Undyne. Undyne stared in disbelief at the phone before handing it back to Frisk._ "Ah she's... She won't be able to make it."

"SHAME! WE WOULD ALL HAVE A GOOD TIME!"

"well, she is the royal scientist. she must be busy, busy. besides, she's probably keeping an eye on mettaton."

"OH THAT'S RIGHT! THE HUMAN WAS ON TV WITH METTATON!" _I groaned and rolled my eyes while Frisk gave an uncomfortable laugh, rubbing their arm with their hand. At least we agreed in that moment that Mettaton was difficult to deal with._ "DO YOU THINK METTATON KNOWS THAT THE HUMAN IS WITH US? HE CAN'T EXACTLY CONTINUE HIS SHOW WITHOUT THEM!" _I stared at Papyrus. He was, unconsciously, trying to put Frisk back on the path. Sans shrugged._

"eh, i think mettaton will understand when they find out the kid needed a break. after all, it must be hard and tiring bein' a celebrity."

"THAT IS TRUE." _Frisk looked at me, shrugging with a smile. I sighed. This deviation wasn't going to be worth it. Once it was over, I was sure that they would bid everyone goodbye and head to Hotland. We had a game to finish after all._

***

_I don't know how long we were there, looking at the ceiling of the caves of Waterfall. We came to the path of the echo flowers that spoke of a passing conversation about a certain wish. I still don't know who those voices belong to. We took a rather... Odd way. A path I thought was not even accessible. But then again, Frisk and I weren't alone this time. We went south just a little, Undyne picking up Frisk and carrying them as she hopped down next to a waterfall. Papyrus was following in suit with ease and Sans was nowhere to be seen. Most likely teleported. We reached a large ledge, nowhere near the end of the waterfall we were beside for it still kept going down, and Undyne placed down Frisk. I looked around. The ledge was actually pretty secure with railing built all around it, secluding everyone in._

_Papyrus landed with a 'nyeh' and Sans was leaning against the wall, like he was wondering what took us so long. Jerk._

"Alright, we're here!" _Undyne said sitting on a bench I clearly missed as I was looking around. Frisk went over to the railing and looked out and down. Their legs shook and they took a step back._

"Afraid of heights?" _I asked. They just gave a nervous smile. I scoffed and rolled my eyes._ "Come on Frisk, it can't be that bad." _I phased through the railing and proceeded to... To... Look... Down... I actually shook. It was so dark. It seemed to have gone on forever. A never ending void. Frisk called for me, snapping me out of it. I looked at them before giving one last glance down. I stood by Frisk and they had a worried smile on their face._ "Sh-Shut up Frisk. That was nothing." _I crossed my arms._

"sure looked like somethin'." _Sans commented, making me turn to him, glaring. He just winked and shrugged._ "i don't think i ever saw a ghost shake in terror before." _I growled and before I could say anything Frisk said that wasn't nice. I saw the look on his face change to guilt. Served him right._ "you're right. sorry kiddo. i'm just being the pot calling the kettle black. it's scary lookin' down there huh?" _Frisk nodded._

"Soooo..." _I dragged out._ "This is the 'best place' to view the cave ceiling?"

"Yep! And you're about to see why!" _Undyne said with enthusiasm, a smile on her face. I watched as the three looked up. Frisk and I looked at each other before following suit. I stared. Of course. I should have seen it. Because unlike at the top where the bioluminescent was plentyful in the water and ground that it lit up everywhere, down where we were our only light source was the glowing waterfall next to us, which meant it was dark. When I looked up, the cave actually did look like the night sky... I think. I couldn't recall the last time I saw the actual sky._

_I looked at Frisk. They were staring in jaw-dropping awe. I looked at the others. They were all staring up, smiling._

"Someday, we'll get to the surface and see actual stars." _Undyne said. We all looked at her. Frisk said that the night sky was a thing of beauty. Undyne smiled._ "I bet! The animated stuff I watch with Alphys have shots where it shows the night sky and how there are so many stars in the sky that you can actually see other planets! Isn't that wild?"

"OTHER PLANETS?"

"you know bro. another place just like here, only really, really far away."

"OH! I SEE!"

"It's... A bit more complicated than that you guys." _I said with a sigh. And then I flinched, regretting to have spoken. Papyrus gasped._

"OOH! WHO WAS THAT?! WAS THAT-*GASP*- THE GHOST HUMAN?!"

"Hey hey! Look at that! Papyrus can hear them now! Can you see 'em Pap?"

"NO I CANNOT! BUT IT'S A STEP CLOSER!"

"Greaaaat..." _I said very sarcastically. Why was everyone starting to notice me now? They never had before. I sighed._ "So, we saw the ceiling of the cave. Now what? Should we head to Hotland and get through the CORE Frisk?"

"what's the hurry pal?" _I looked at Sans. He was giving me a warning look, smile still on his face._ "the kid can go to hotland and the core any time they want. they have all the time in the world after all." _He gave a smile at Frisk._ "right kiddo?" Frisk _nodded with a smile, saying I should relax too since I was being so stressed lately. I stuttered, trying to get a sentence out._

_Did they really just say that? Don't they know what was at stake here?! No. Of course they didn't. They still don't know that this is just a game. I stopped and sighed, rubbing my hands over my face, groaning._

"Ffffffine." _I said. That made Frisk smile. I rolled my eyes. Guess the deviation was gonna take longer than I thought._


	8. Talking

_We spent yet another night in the skeleton residence. Everyone continued on with their 'slumber party' plans. I however, didn't want to be around all the loud noise. So once again, I sank into the floor. But then Frisk spoke, practically begging me to stay. I huffed and told them no and then disappeared. I stayed in the walls... floor... whatever. And then my body got heavy and I was slowly dragged out of the wall, into the basement. I glared at Sans._

“What?”  _ I growled.  _ “What could you possibly want with me? Do you want me to join that nonsense up there too? Well tough because I don't want to-!”

“take it easy kid, i just wanna talk.”  _ I stared at him. Talk? Well... I guess I did say that I would try and talk with him about everything I know at a later date. And I guess right now was practically the perfect time to do so. I sighed. _

“Yeah. Sure.”  _ My body went light and Sans hopped up onto the counter, leaning back against the wall, hands in his jacket pocket.  _ “Alright Sans, what do you wanna talk about?”

“what's with you? why aren't you hanging out with everyone?”  _ I scoffed. _

“Seriously? I'd like to see you become me. Know everything I do. Gone through everything I did. Being stuck like  _ THIS! _ ”  _ I gestured to my obvious see-through body.  _

“so then tell me kid.”  _ I stared and he shrugged.  _ “start at the beginning.”

“Tch. What are you, a therapist?”

“i could be.”  _ He grinned.  _ “so, how did it all start? when did it start?”  _ I stared. Was I really going to tell him everything? Well... maybe not everything. _

“I... honestly don't know how long it's been. The constant... resets and timelines... it messes with your perception of time. For all I know, the very first time Frisk fell could have been years ago.”  _ I looked up at him.  _ “You of all people should know how that feels. Frisk has died multiple times in this timeline.”

“yeah. but i don't blame the kid. i mean... they can't help it if some monsters bring the hurt more than others and take a lot more convincing than others.”

“That's an understatement.”

“so... frisk's first fall. how did that go?”  _ I crossed my arms and looked down in thought. Sure I knew everything. It was just recalling everything that was a bit more of a challenge. Especially things that seemed to have happen so... long ago. _

“Frisk fell. I woke up. I helped them with... support. Frisk... needed it. Especially when it came to the monster fights. I knew all about them, the fights. I knew how to check a monster's stats. So when Frisk asked, I helped. It helped them figure out how to deal with every single monster that crossed our path. And they were always so kind. Mom really liked that. The path of pacifism. She tried so hard to keep us with her. But Frisk... they just wanted to leave.

“I didn't understand why. I wanted to be with mom. Being with mom was safe. She would've been able to provide for us. But... Frisk wanted to leave. They wanted to go back to the surface. When Frisk proved that they could indeed be a being that could walk the path of pacifism... Mom let them go. I couldn't even get to hug her and say goodbye.”  _ I sighed.  _ “And then the rest... was just a set path. Snowdin, Waterfall, Hotland, The CORE... Asgore. It was all... really straight forward. And through it all... not once did Frisk ever lift a finger to harm a monster. We had ourselves a great time. I was so sure that everything was going to be okay now... until the end.

“Asriel shattered the barrier. Everyone was free. The surface was... beautiful... And then they reset again. I didn't understand it. We were all so happy. And Frisk... Frisk couldn't see me or hear me. That frightened me sure but... after what they started to do... I was terrified. Every single monster Frisk came across... they dusted them all. Mom... Papyrus... Undyne... You.”  _ I looked at him. His sockets were empty.  _ “I... I didn't understand it until after Waterfall... after Frisk killed Undyne... that I finally knew why Frisk was doing it all.”  _ I chuckled. I saw that caught Sans' attention. _

“It's just a game. Frisk's power... the power to reset... it hit me that... with a power like that... there were no consequences. Frisk reset to the very beginning because in some dark corner of their mind... they were curious. Curious as to what would happen if they just... started killing? They figured after they had done what they needed to, they would reset again. Everything would go back to normal. But there was one thing they didn't count on. Something, or rather, someone, that made them think back on their decision.”  _ I had no idea I was chuckling through my entire speech, making Sans practically glare at me. _

“You.”  _ His lights returned to his sockets, confusion on his face.  _ “You were the only one who knew what was happening with all the resets. You confronted Frisk. You fought them while telling them what was happening. It struck something in Frisk. It made them think for once throughout that entire run. That there were consequences waiting for them. And when they killed you... they regretted everything. They had to make things right. Had to reset again. Had to get to the end so they could fix everything! But... I was waiting for them. When they killed Asgore... when they killed Asriel... I was all that was left of the underground.

“Frisk... BEGGED to reset again. To make things right again. So I made them a deal. In exchange for... resetting... I could have their soul.”  _ I chuckled.  _ “They agreed to it. They gave me their soul and in exchange I reset everything. But little did Frisk know that I was reminding them throughout their second pacifist route of the horrible things they did. Reminding them that they had ruined OUR happily ever after because of their curiosity. Because they thought they could play God.”

“wait so... what was the purpose of taking their soul if they were just going to get it back when they reset?”

“I just said it. I reminded Frisk of all the horrible things they did. I tampered with their soul before they reset, making them keep all those memories with them.”  _ I sighed. _

“At first, it kept Frisk from doing anything bad as they went through their second pacifist run. But then... something happened. Frisk learned something that wasn't apparent in the last two runs. Frisk learned a secret. And once again... their curiosity got the better of them. They reset. Again. And again.  _ And again.  _ Each reset resulting in a different run. Neutral. Pacifist.  **Genocide** . It had become apparent that Frisk... just didn't care anymore about what consequences there would be.

“It became their mindset that everything was indeed just a game. It didn't matter to them who they hurt anymore. They've heard it all... Until they haven't. When they learned something they didn't before they took notice of it. Wanted to explore it. And I... I was left to just... watch. I couldn't do anything. Frisk barely paid attention to me. Heh... it drove you completely insane.”  _ I chuckled.  _ “I remember seeing you just not care any more. Nothing mattered. You... Broke.”

“oh and you didn't?”

“Oh. I did. I broke too. Yeah. I just stopped caring. I'm not a bad person. I'm really not. But when you're forced to go through everything I did... Your mindset starts to change too. I did... everything in my power to try and deter Frisk... but they were too determined. I may be slightly twisted in the head now... but that doesn't mean I forgot who I once was. Who we once were.”  _ There was a bit of silence between us for awhile. _

“so then... what about now? have you figured it out yet?”

“No.”  _ I sighed.  _ “The fact Frisk can't recall anything and my... 'soul' is glitchy as all hell... I don't know what happened. So I... I guess I'm back to square one.”

“and where's that?”

“Helping Frisk get through this run. I just... I just hope that... with enough deviation... with enough distractions... Frisk won't reset again all the way to the beginning just because they were curious. I just... want a happy ending for once.”  _ Silence again. As much as I hated to admit it, I did feel a little better. A weight being lifted off my shoulders. _

“so...”  _ I looked at Sans.  _ “you really aren't some psychopath.”

“Despite what you can read from my 'soul'... no, I'm not. All the LV, all the EXP... they're not mine. They all belong to Frisk. After every genocide route they took, I confronted them. I asked for their soul and they would hand it over to me. Every single drop of LV and EXP just... flooded my body. I'm like a storage container. It allowed Frisk to reset fresh. Give them a sense of having to work for it to get what they wanted.”

“i still find it hard to believe that the kid can really be that evil.”

“Humans are... confusing. I'll give you that. Unlike monsters where their feelings and souls are connected as one... humans can detach themselves from their feelings. From their soul. And that's just what Frisk did. If we can keep Frisk happy... happy enough to where they won't... reset again... where they won't reach that dark part of their mind... Frisk could give everyone a happy ending forever.”

“keep 'em happy huh? doesn't sound that hard.”

“But it is.”  _ I saw that get his attention.  _ “It is hard. Because if we want that happy ending... Frisk is going to have to get passed Asgore. Get passed Asriel. And trust me when I say that... A LOT of things happen in that time. Things that will no doubt have Frisk wondering certain things. And the horrible... horrible thing about that is that... they have to do it alone. All alone.”

“they have to?”

“Yes. They  _ have  _ to. Because nobody ever came for them. Nobody ever showed up to help them when they needed it the most because that option was taken away from them.”  _ I saw that got Sans looking down, a bit of regret on his face. I sighed.  _ “It's just... no one ever came.”

“gee... i-i'm sorry kid. i had no idea.”

“I know.”  _ I sighed.  _ “I know. No one had any idea.”  _ We were silent again. Sans shuffled before hopping off the counter. _

“i bet everyone's watching a movie by now. wanna go and see?”

“Why does it matter?”

“... hey.”  _ I looked at him. He had a sincere smile on his face.  _ “i'm gonna make a promise to ya kid. not just to you, but to frisk as well.”

“Oh yeah? What?”

“i promise... to be there.”  _ I stared before scoffing.  _ “hey. i never break a promise. i swear it kid, i will be there in the end. i will be there to help frisk. and i'll drag papyrus and undyne and everyone else the kid has gotten close to and we will be there.”  _ I stared before looking down, chuckling.  _ “what?”  _ I shook my head. _

“That won't work.”

“how do you know?”

“Because it's happened before.”  _ He stared.  _ “Yeah... Everyone showed up to be by Frisk's side, to help them fight against the tyrant that was my brother... but that didn't last long. Asriel took the six human souls and all the souls of the underground to become whole again, leaving just him... and Frisk.”

“well, is there a way to stop that?”

“No. Trust me... I keep replaying that moment in my mind again and again, wondering what we could have done differently... but there was no answer. It all happened for a reason. There is no way around it.”  _ Sans looked down. He was in thought.  _ “Don't try Sans. It's not worth stressing over.”

“how did he even get all the monster souls? there's no way every single monster showed up.”

“You're right. They didn't. With the power of the six human souls, Asriel had the power to pull all the monster souls towards him forcefully. This... is the only inevitable thing that can happen in the game. No one can avoid it.”  _ Silence. It was starting to get annoying. Definitely a mood killer.  _ “Look Sans just... go back with being with the others. At least you can enjoy their company.”

“nah.”  _ I looked at him. He was winking at me.  _ “i'll only go up if you go up.”  _ I sighed and groaned and rolled my eyes.  _ “otherwise you're stuck here with me for the rest of the night.”

“Tch. Fine. Whatever.”

***

_I woke up to the sound of a smoke alarm. Jolted really. Smoke was coming out of the kitchen and I could hear Papyrus getting yelled at by Undyne. I groaned and rolled my eyes. I looked at Frisk. They were just stirring too._

“I got it Frisk.”  _ I floated over to the kitchen, just barely making it and I saw Undyne and Papyrus... cooking. I shivered.  _ “What the heck are you two doing?!”  _ I shouted over the alarm. I saw them stop and stare at me. Somehow, during the movie last night, Papyrus was able to see me. He was overjoyed. _

“GOOD MORNING GHOSTLY HUMAN CHARA!”  _ I covered my ears. It was too early for his voice.  _ “UNDYNE AND I WERE JUST MAKING EVERYONE SOME BREAKFAST!”

“Oh joy.”  _ I said sarcastically.  _ “Can you at least not turn your house into Undyne's- CAN SOMEONE SHUT OFF THAT DAMN ALARM?!”  _ Undyne grabbed the smoke alarm and smashed it against the counter. By the look on her face, she didn't mean to break it. I don't know what she was expecting. I groaned, rolled my eyes, and returned to Frisk. They gave me a smile. They asked if I caught a glimpse of what the two were making.  _ “No and I don't care. Come on Frisk, let's go get a cinnamon bunny from the shop. It's better than Papyrus' cooking.”

_Frisk said that wasn't nice to say. I rolled my eyes. Frisk said I wasn't the one eating anyway. That I never eat. And that was true. I never did need to eat. I was dead after all. Just a spirit. But then again... so is Nabstablook. Although, I have a feeling he only ate whenever he was out with others, as to not appear rude. Frisk headed towards the kitchen. They asked if everything was okay._

“Don't worry about us.”  _ Undyne said.  _ “We got everything under control.”

“Yeah, right.”  _ I scoffed.  _ “Like how you had everything under control at your house?”  _ Undyne's eye twitched. _

“That's not fair. I'm great at cooking!”

“Tchyeah okay.”  _ I chuckled. I felt my body get heavy and get dragged into the living room. I groaned.  _ “Whaaaaat?”

“c'mon kid, at least be a little nice.”  _ Sans said, letting me go when I was in front of him. _

“I'm not a morning person.”

“neither am i.”  _ He said it with a wink and a smile.  _ “but i still deal with it, because i love my bro.”

“Yeah well, at least you have him.”

“don't you have frisk?”  _ I looked back at the kitchen, at Frisk who was still in the doorway. _

“I used to...”  _ I sighed.  _ “Whatever, it doesn't matter.”  _ Sans hummed and smirked his stupid smile.  _ “What?”  _ I asked, agitated. _

“are you sure about that? you really seem to care for the kid, judging from what i've gathered. all that talk about how you've been trying to do the right thing for frisk. is everything you told me last night a lie?”

“N-No I wasn't lying but... Look if you had your memories you would know what I'm talking about!”

“but i don't.”

“Tch, yeah and it's annoying.”

“so why did you want a cinnamon bunny?”  _ I stared at him. He changed the subject. _

“I don't...?”

“then why did you suggest that frisk get one? the shop in town sells more than just cinnamon bunnies.”

“Because they're warm and the closest thing to a breakfast food.”

“ahh. they're warm. you want something warm.”  _ I stared in confusion. What the heck was he getting at? I didn't want anything. It was going to be for Frisk. It was better than eating Papyrus' trash of a meal. Which, when I turned to look, everyone was at the table eating... wait... _

“F-Frisk!”  _ I hurried over and stared at what they were eating. Spaghetti. Was Papyrus freaking serious?  _ “Are you guys... seriously eating spaghetti?! That's not a breakfast food!”

“SURE IT IS! THAT IS WHY IT IS CALLED BREAKFAST SPAGHETTI!”  _ I stared as Papyrus ate his own food. I shivered. That had to confirm it. Papyrus was unable to taste anything. I looked at Undyne and Frisk, who were pretending to eat and sometimes forcibly ate a noodle or two. _

“Papyrus this isn't a healthy breakfast! Especially for a human!”  _ I saw that got me looks from everyone.  _ “W-What?”  _ Frisk said that they were enjoying it. Of course they would say that. To spare Papyrus' feelings. I groaned into my hands.  _ “Fine. Whatever. Don't come crying to me when you suddenly start to feel ill!”  _ I floated away, arms crossed. I could hear them talking about me. I stopped when Sans held out a small brown bag in my face.  _ “What is that?”

“for you kid.”  _ I stared at him. Was he seriously waiting for me to grab it? I couldn't. I was a ghost! He then reached in and held out a... cinnamon bunny with... chocolate frosting. I gaped at him and he chuckled.  _ “here kid. try and take it.”

“Y-You can't be serious. I can't grab that.”

“how do you know if you never try?”  _ I stared at him. _

“Why did you go get one?”  _ He shrugged. _

“because it looks like you could use it. so here. enjoy.”  _ I stared at him and then the bunny. It did look... good. But there was no way I was going to be able to grab it. I sighed. The least I could do was amuse him while also proving him right that I couldn't... I stared. I had actually picked up the bunny. Or rather... a ghostly copy of it. The solid bunny was still in his hand but in mine was a... ghostly type. I could feel it. It felt so warm. I shook. I didn't even notice that I started to cry. Never had I once been able to actually feel something. Not even the heat of Hotland was enough for me to feel something. _

“h-hey, are you okay kid? what's the matter?”

“Sans? What's going on?”  _ Everyone at the table came over, I could hear the concern in their voices. Frisk was more worried than the others. They asked if I was okay.  _ “Are you... crying over a cinnamon bun?”  _ I jerked and wiped away the stupid tears.  _ “Wait, where did that even come from?”

“i got it for the kid. they really wanted it.”

“SO THEY CAN EAT FOOD!”

“only if they want to bro.”  _ I sighed, shivered a little, before taking a bite. It was warm. It was nice. It was like home. _


	9. Coming To Light

“Guys... we can't keep avoiding this.”  _ I said. We were all walking through Snowdin, or rather, the outskirts of Snowdin, towards the ruins. They all looked at me. _

“Avoid what?”  _ Undyne asked. I sighed. _

“Frisk has to progress. I mean... Mettaton is waiting for them at The CORE. And Alphys... Frisk needs to go back and to keep going.”

“Bah! That glorified metal rectangle can handle another day or so without Frisk! As for Alphys though... I am a little worried. She didn't... sound that good when I spoke with her yesterday... You know what? Why don't we all go see her? Cheer her up! Bring her with us! We've been having all this fun already.”

“It's not that easy...”  _ I didn't know I said that out loud until Undyne asked, _

“Whaddya mean? Sure it is!”  _ I sighed and looked down.  _ “So guys, who wants to go to Hotland?”  _ Frisk was nervous but they agreed to Undyne's plan. Sans shrugged and Papyrus was giddy. _

“THAT SOUNDS WONDERFUL!”

“Nice! And along the way, we could stop by my place.”

“isn't it still on fire?”

“Pfft! I only need to grab my scale cream. Otherwise I'd bake in Hotland.”

“And like the flames won't do that?”  _ I said sarcastically. _

“You guys worry to much. I'll be in and out in no time!”  _ I rolled my eyes. Guess we were going to Hotland... _

***

_ It was amazingly stupid how Undyne was actually able to get her cream out of her burning house. And then we just... left it again. I shook my head. It made no sense. We all made our way to Alphy's lab and the door just opened. Odd. It should've been locked. But then again, things weren't going according to the set path. The lab lights were still on and Alphys was at her giant computer. She jumped when we all walked in. _

“Wha-Wha-What are you all d-doing here?!”

“We came to get you Al!”  _ Undyne said with a big smile. Alphys jumped, waving her head and hands.  _

“O-Oh no! I couldn't! I-I have a lot of w-work to do! P-Plus I would just g-g-get in the way!”

“Nonsense Al!”  _ Undyne put an arm around Alphys.  _ “You work so hard! Plus I bet even you could use a break from Mettaton. I bet he's crying about how the human isn't around huh?”

“Y-Y-You know?”

“how could we not? he's been broadcasting everything up until frisk left hotland a couple days ago.”

“O-O-Oh... Right.”

“So? Whaddya say Alphys? Come hang with us for a bit?”

“I-I-I...”  _ I sighed. This was definitely... deviating from the path. _

“ALPHYS, DARLING! PLEASE TELL ME YOU FOUND THAT LITTLE HUMAN-!”  _ Everyone stopped and stared at the rectangle on one wheel that was Mettaton making his way towards us.  _ “OH? WE HAVE GUESTS!”  _ Papyrus gasped. _

“WOWIE! I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M ACTUALLY MEETING METTATON!”

“OH? A FAN? HOW WONDERFUL!”

“I LOVE ALL OF YOUR MOVIES!”  _ I couldn't take it. Between the metal voice that was Mettaton's and the loudness of Papyrus', I wanted to sink into the floor. But that all ceased when Mettaton looked at Frisk. _

“OH! THE HUMAN! THERE YOU ARE DARLING! YOU'VE BEEN KEEPING THE AUDIENCE WAITING YOU KNOW! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?”

“Maybe they just didn't want to be bothered by you and your camera crew, ding bot.”  _ Undyne growled. Mettaton waved a finger. _

“OH NO NO NO! THAT SIMPLY WON'T DO!”

“M-M-Mettaton... m-maybe give the human a break? I mean... They're not exactly... equipped right for Hotland. S-Surely you can understand and... hold off on killing them in front of your... fans?”  _ There was silence. I rolled my eyes. I almost forgot about Alpyhs' shtick. _

“Hey, guys, can I say something?”  _ All eyes went on me, except of course for Alphys' and Mettaton's.  _ “Now... Frisk won't be able to hear what I'm about to say so... sorry Frisk.”  _ They gave me a confused look.  _ “But all of this is complete baloney. Alphys has been using Mettaton to appear like a hero to Frisk.”

“How do you know that?”  _ Undyne asked. _

“W-What?”  _ Alphys looked at her, confused.  _ “I-I mean... aren't they ex-exhausted? From the heat?”  _ Undyne looked at Alphys confused before saying, _

“Oh, no! I didn't mean you Al. Ah, I guess I should explain. The human has a ghost attached to them. Everyone here can see and hear them.”

“W-What? A gh-ghost? But... I don't see or hear anyone.”

“OH MY! A GHOST ATTACHED TO THE HUMAN? THINK OF THE STORY I COULD REPORT!”

“Hey bolts for brains, knock it off! This is serious!”  _ I actually smiled. I was glad I wasn't the only one who found Mettaton annoying.  _ “Anyway...”  _ Undyne looked at me.  _ “How do you know that?”

“i hate to say this but i gotta agree with the kid. i think it's been a little obvious. come on undyne, you and alphys are more close together than we are. think about it.”

“U-Uh guys? I'm very... very confused. Wh-What are you talking about?”

“Well... the ghost kid is accusing you of just... using Mettaton to look like some hero in front of the human.”  _ Alphys went white and stared in disbelief before shaking and stuttering. _

“Wha-Wha-What?! N-N-No! I-I would never do th-that! Hahahaha! Me-Me-Mettaton was accidentally p-p-programmed as a human killing ro-robot to hunt down h-human souls! Hahaha!”  _ I saw Mettaton's body flinch, probably remembering that he was indeed supposed to be playing that roll. _

“A-AH! YES! THAT'S RIGHT!”  _ I rolled my eyes. I wondered how I could get on Alpyhs' level. The last thing I wanted to do was to drag this out. It then hit me. _

“The amalgamates.”  _ I said. Everyone looked at me, confused, except for Sans. I noticed that it also got Alphys' attention. I saw her shake. _

“Wh-Wh-What? Wh-Who... Who said that...?”

“Whoa. Whatever you just said got her attention.”

“I see that Undyne, thanks.”  _ I said sarcastically. Alphys looked around wildly, scared out of her mind. Well... She definitely wasn't going to like what I was going to say next.  _ “I know everything about them Alphys. I know what you did. And I need you to believe me when I say... that it's okay. You will be forgiven.”

“N-N-N-No! Y-Y-You don't kno-know that!”

“Yes I do.”  _ I saw her gaze rest on me. She stared at me in shock... maybe a little horror.  _

“W-What...? That's not... possible... Y-you can't be...!”

“I am. It's a long story Alphys but there's just something I need to get across to you. I know you're afraid. You have a right to be. But... I can say with complete certainty... if you confess now... you will be forgiven. Fired sure, but forgiven.”

“H-How do you know that? Y-You can't know that...! I-I...! I did something so bad...!”

“Whoa, whoa, hey. Alphys. What's wrong?”  _ Undyne tried to comfort her, hand on her shoulder. _

“Are you going to run Alphys? Are you going to keep being a coward? Keep lying to everyone?”  _ I said, forcing it a little. It was necessary. _

“Whoa, hey kid that's enough.”  _ I stared at Undyne and Alphys before turning around. _

“Th... They're right...”  _ I looked back. Alphys was shaking sure but... it looked like I sped things along quite nicely.  _ “I've been... lying to you guys... to you Undyne... I... I'm not a great person... I... made mistakes... B-But the human is right... I need to confess...”

***

“Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...???”  _ We all took a ride down to the true lab, where Alphys showed everyone the amalgamates. I had to admit, I didn't think she'd do this. Everyone, except Sans and me, stared at the amalgamates in confusion and horror and shock. _

"W-We were just... I was just... Trying to make them better. But we... I had... No i-idea that... This would happen."  _ Everyone looked at Alphys. _

"Al..."  _ Undyne was trying to find the right words but was failing. She then touched Alphys' shoulder.  _ "It was... Out of your control. Like you said, how could you have known?"

"I-I'm ashamed... B-B-But... I couldn't keep hiding this... Hiding th-them forever."  _ I felt my body get heavy and dragged to the back of the group. I looked at Sans. _

"What?"

"i didn't think you knew about the amalgamates."

"I told you, I know everything. And to be honest, this is a relief."

"oh yeah? how so?"  _ I chuckled. _

"We've skipped a big section of the game."

"what do you mean kid?"  _ He was getting suspicious. I chuckled again. _

"Frisk was supposed to get to The CORE and fight Mettaton, Alphys was to be shut away in her lab, Frisk was then supposed to learn the truth of what happened-"  _ I stopped. Was it really worth explaining? No.  _ "...Long story short, Frisk just avoided one of the major battles with Asriel."  _ I sighed.  _ "I just wish the next one was avoidable too..."

"which one did we avoid?"

"The one where nobody came. The one where Frisk was all alone."

"so then... the next one would be... when all our souls are forcefully taken."  _ I nodded. _

"Yeah..."

"well... there has to be something we can do."

"There's not Sans. We may have avoided one fight but we can't avoid the next. It's inevitable."  _ We both sighed. _

"BROTHER? IS EVERYTHING OKAY? WHAT ARE YOU TWO WHISPERING ABOUT?"

"heh, it's nothing bro. me and the kid are just telling jokes."

"UGH. THIS IS NOT A TIME FOR JOKES!"

“you're right, you're right. sorry pap."  _ He grumbled and went back to whatever conversation was happening with the rest of the group. A thought then hit me. _

"You know... You haven't exactly... Joked much this timeline. You're usually spilling them left and right."

"oh yeah? well, guess i just don't 'have the guts' to do 'em."  _ He chuckled and winked. I rolled my eyes, shaking my head, but chuckling. _

"That was bad. You could have done better."

“meh.”  _ He shrugged.  _ “so... what now?”  _ Now that was a question. Everything escalated quickly and all in the wrong direction. The only reasonable thing I could think of was to... confront Asgore but... if Frisk did that... Asriel would have access to the souls. We'd all get plunged into the darkness as Frisk would once again have to fight him. There had to be a way to talk to Asgore without him bringing the other human souls out... _

“you okay kid?”  _ I looked at him, shrugging. _

“I'm just... thinking.”

“about what to do next?”

“Kind of. More like... how can we avoid Asgore?”

“well, that's not gonna be possible-”

“No no I mean... When Frisk finally gets to Asgore, he'll show Frisk the six other human souls before pulling them into battle. It's during that time that Asriel will steal the human souls and... the monster souls.”

“a-ah... i see.”

“I just... if we can keep Asgore from bringing out the other souls... Frisk would have a chance and... Asriel wouldn't steal them.”  _ There was silence between us. I sighed. _

“ya know... you said that 'asriel' broke the barrier, not frisk. how did he do that?”  _ I chuckled a little. _

“Call what I'm about to say counter-intuitive but... when Asriel steals the human souls and all the monster souls... he becomes whole again. He has his own soul back. He's no longer a flower-”

“ _ wait. _ ”  _ I looked at him and he seemed surprised. Did I not mention that Asriel and Flowey were the same person? Guess not.  _ “you're telling me that damn flower is actually your brother? like... he's legitimately the king's actual son?”  _ I nodded. _

“Yeah. That's... a bit of a story to tell.”  _ I could see Sans trying to make sense of everything. It was amusing. I chuckled a little.  _ “Anyway,”  _ He looked at me.  _ “When he becomes whole again and fights Frisk and is... saved... When he finally understands that... this is what was meant to be... He takes his soul and the six human souls and... he breaks the barrier.”

“wait wait wait, that doesn't make sense. seven human souls are needed to break the barrier. how did he do it with six?”

“Because his soul was part human.”

“what?”

“O-Of course!”  _ I stopped and slowly turned to see that everyone was gathered around us, listening to us. Crap. I saw Sans get anxious too.  _ “That makes s-sense!”  _ Alphys said, a little enthusiastic.  _

“H-How long were you guys listening?! You could have at least said something!”  _ I said, a little flustered. _

“Sorry but... we were just so caught up in your story we... didn't really think about it.”  _ Undyne said. I sighed heavily and looked at Alphys. I guess at least she understood, even though it was obvious that everything I told Sans was probably way over her head. _

“So, you think you figured it out just by listening to me? You're not even confused on how I know all this?”

“W-Well I mean... I am very c-confused. I'm not... understanding all th-the details but... I am certain about this! The flower... Asriel... I-I know about him. Always have. A-And everyone here knows the story o-of how Asgore... lost his kids.”

“Yeah, I remember hearing that story in school.”  _ Undyne said.  _ “It was, after all... monster history.”

“B-But if what you're predicting is-is true... then it was definitely p-possible to break the barrier with just s-six human souls and Asriel's.”  _ I looked at everyone. I could tell Frisk was confused, but I also looked at Papyrus. He was confused, as I figured but... He looked like he was more... in shock after hearing this. And then I remembered. _

“Papyrus.”  _ I got his, and everyone else's, attention.  _ “You've spoken to Asriel many times, haven't you? Or rather... Flowey.”

“I-I...”

“pap... what are they talking about? have you... been hanging out with that monster?”

“I-I CAN ASSURE YOU THAT FLOWEY IS A VERY GOOD MONSTER!”

“papyrus!”  _ He flinched.  _ “i've told you so many times that that WEED isn't a good person! they're nothing but a liar paps!”  _ I was curious. Sure I knew that Papyrus had talked with Asriel on occasion. It was one of the small secrets that Frisk had figured out. 'Small' being the key word. But now... I wanted to know more. How deep did this relationship with Asriel and Papyrus go? _

_ Asriel even said it himself that before Frisk fell... he too had the power to reset. How he reset because he too wanted to know everything or because he was bored. How he read every book and burned every book... How he made 'friends' with all monsters and how he... killed all monsters. That then made me wonder... Was Sans affected by those resets too...? No. He couldn't have been... He would have said something during the genocide routes. Unless... he was messing with me again. _

_ I looked at everyone. They were all now so confused and angry at the same time; Sans yelling at Papyrus, Alphys shuffling uncomfortably, Undyne straight up confused... I looked at Frisk. I expected them to be confused or uncomfortable but... instead they had a worried look on their face. They looked at me, worried. _

“What's wrong Frisk?”  _ I asked quietly when I approached them. They said that they were scared.  _ “S-Scared huh? Yeah this is... crazy isn't it?”  _ Frisk looked down before saying that they just couldn't understand. That their head hurt.  _ “It's... best not to think about it Frisk.”  _ They asked how come I knew what I knew. That was a good question. But I knew I would never be able to tell them.  _ “I... Can't Frisk. I-It's too complicated.”  _ They asked me who I was. I stared. I guess I could at least owe them that.  _ “Well... My name is Chara but, you already know that... And I was... the first human to ever come to the underground after the monsters were sealed away. I was... adopted by... by mom.”  _ They stared, shocked.  _ “Mom was once the queen. She and dad they... had a kid. His name was Asriel. He was my brother.”

_ Frisk asked what happened? I wondered if since we skipped a huge part of the game if it was okay for me to tell them the story now. It was worth a shot. _

“Once upon a time, a long LONG time ago...”  _ I froze. We all did. No one in the room had said that.  _ “A human child had fallen into the underground. Injured by the fall, they called for help.”  _ Everyone was looking around either crazily or scared. This voice. I've never heard it before. Not once in any of the other timelines. _

“Who-Who-Who's there?!”  _ Alphys panicked. Undyne brought out her spear. Sans and Papyrus stayed close to Frisk. _

“The king's son, Asriel, heard the cries of the fallen human and brought them home to his mother and father, the king and the queen.”  _ I heard something. It sounded like... something was... moving... slithering... at a slow pace. I looked around. I couldn't see anything.  _ “The king and queen took care of the fallen human child as if it was their own. But then... one day... the human  _**died** _ .”  _ The ground shook. Everyone stumbled and the voice continued.  _ “Before they died they asked that they see the flowers from their village one last time. Asriel then took the soul of the human and became a  _**god** _ .”

_ Giant vines exploded out of the ground. No... Asriel was here. Sans and Papyrus put up a protective bone barrier, as did Undyne with her spears, around the group. I kept looking but I couldn't see Asriel anywhere. The vines swung violently as he continued.  _ “He then took the human's body and crossed the barrier, taking them to the village below. He had gently placed the humans body in a field of golden flowers. However...”  _ I heard a scream. I looked. Alphys was grabbed by one of the vines. _

“ALPHYS!”  _ We all screamed. Undyne tried to get her back but the vine quickly retreated into the hole it came from, Alphys' scream echoing. Undyne tried to follow but was grabbed as well. She struggled. _

“When the humans in the village saw Asriel with the body, they all assumed he had killed the child. And so they  _**BEAT HIM** _ . And instead of fighting back...”  _ Undyne was pulled into a hole, her yelling echoing. The last thing we heard from her was her screaming for us to run.  _ “He grabbed the human's body and carried it back up the mountain, where, once he crossed the barrier, his body had collapsed and turned to dust.” 

“SANS!”  _ We all turned. Papyrus had quickly disappeared. _

“PAPYRUS!”

“Wracked with grief, the king vowed to kill any human who falls into the underground so he could have enough souls to break the barrier and become a monster of unspeakable power so he could get revenge on the humans who dared to kill his son.”  _ There was giggling. I turned around. There he was. Right in my face. Smiling without a care in the world.  _ “Doesn't that sound just awful?”

“A-Asriel...”  _ I couldn't speak. _

“Hee hee hee! Howdy Chara!”  _ His face became twisted.  _ “ _**Did you miss me?** _ ”


	10. The Plan

_I felt like I was going to throw up. Asriel had grabbed Frisk, and I could only assume Sans, dragging them down into the hole the vine came out of. The vine seemed to travel at a very high speed, dirt and soil getting all over Frisk. And because I was bound, I was getting dragged along too, the strain of the limit was unbearable. I could actually feel the stress coming off of the limit I was obviously pushing. It was so heavy. Almost suffocating._

_And then we came to a complete stop before being jutted out of the ground. I was too exhausted to realize where we were. I actually coughed for air and I shielded my eyes from the bright light that was all around. I stared. We were in The Judgment Hall. Lined up against the far wall was everyone, trapped in vines, struggling. I then stared. There was an extra person._

"M-Mom!" _Mom was completely knocked out. I panicked... Why? It wasn't like I haven't seen her like that before in past timelines. I floated over to her._ "Mom! Mom wake up! Mom!"

"Hee hee! The gang is almost all here!" _I turned around and there was Asriel staring up at everyone._ "All that's missing is the king and then everything will be as it should!"

"Asriel! Let them go!" _I got in his face but he just smiled smugly._

"And what are you going to do Chara? You can't exactly touch me. You're dead after all! And you're not a normal monster ghost. You don't know any magic!"

"I thought you had no idea what was going on?!"

"Oh but I do! Believe me Chara, it was a shock to actually see you! Well... Somewhat see you. But after getting past the shock..." _He giggled so giddily._ "I was able to go back to thinking clearly. Besides," _His gave a wink._ "I never said I didn't know anything." _I fumed. I was angry. He giggled._ "I know _everything_ Chara. And after eavesdropping on your conversation back at the lab, I now know you do too. Which is weird. I was promised that everyone would forget." _He actually looked confused. It ticked me off. But then I was confused._

"P-Promised? Promised by who? A-And for what?" _He giggled before his face became twisted._

"Why, by none other than the Doctor of course!" _I stared. No... That wasn't possible... No... Maybe it was. Because of Frisk, I knew that Doctor Gaster was stuck in limbo among a few other things but other than that... Frisk never had any interest in pursuing that frustrating secret._

"wh-what did you say?!" _I looked back at Sans. He had a mix of emotions all over his face. Asriel laughed._

"You heard me! I got a visit from the good ol Doctor and he promised me the power to be stronger than Frisk's 'determination!' Stronger than their power to reset! He calls it... 'Overwrite.'" _He then sighed, actually disappointed._ "However, it wasn't exactly perfect. I only had the ability to use it once. He said that the power would erase everyone's memories of all the past resets this _**brat** _ caused, including their own memories." _Asriel held up Frisk, who was still struggling in the vine._ "And wouldn't you know it he was right!"

 _He giggled._ "Sure I may still have my memories of all those horrible, _**horrible** _ resets but...! It just made me that much smarter! I knew what to expect!" _His smile faded and he looked at me._ "At least... I thought I did." _I stared at him. I never thought I would feel this kind of fear again... Unless I was just feeling Frisk's fear... I didn't know._ "Turned out there was a _**glitch** _ who was immune to the power of Overwrite." _He laughed._ "But who would have thought?! I know I sure wouldn't have!" _He snickered and rolled his eyes._

"I mean, don't get me wrong. I knew something was up with Frisk. I knew that somehow they... Channeled you in a way but... I didn't think that you were actually around as a ghost!” _He laughed, I stared, fists shaking._

“And just what are you going to do now Asriel, huh? You reset everything back and you wasted your only shot because... Why? What would you gain? Frisk would just reset again and again and all this effort would have been for nothing!” _He waved one of his leaves like he would a finger._

“Ah ah ah! You got it all wrong silly! I didn't waste anything at all! Despite the... minor inconvenience that is yourself, things couldn't have gone better! But then again, I really have you to thank Chara!”

“W-What?” _He giggled. I hated it when Asriel was like this. Always toying with everyone._

“Oh yes! After hearing how you was trying oh-so desperately to deter Frisk's path and set them on the path of pacifism forever, I was overjoyed!”

“W-Why...?” _He got up close to my face, his smug little smile plastered on his face before he... did something I never would have thought. His smug smile... turned into one of exhaustion._

“Because... I'm tired Chara. Aren't you?” _I stared._ “Surely you have to be.”

“W-What about all that talk back in Snowdin? How you wanted me to manipulate Frisk into killing Asgore?” _He shook his head._

“That was before I knew you were telling the truth, that you still had your memories. That you were around all along, watching Frisk go through timeline after timeline, reset after reset. I wanted you to have Frisk kill Asgore because I thought you two were still just following the game. But now I know that you are no longer following the path.” _I stared at him._

“You're not making any sense Asriel. If you're so tired of playing this game then why are you still doing it?! You've captured everyone that was supposed to be captured, minus Asgore! You and I both know that every monster doesn't have to show up in the throne room for you to take their souls and become you again!” _He sighed, shaking his head._

“I'm doing this so that we don't have to go through it all over again.” _I stared._ “When the Doctor came to me and offered me a chance to stop these stupid resets... I took it. When everything was overwritten... I knew what I had to do. But... you made it difficult.”

“What were you gonna do?”

“Convince Frisk to never, ever reset again.” _I stared. Was he serious?_

“Asriel you and I both know that you will never be able to convince Frisk to not reset again! Their curiosity always got the best of them! That's why they reset every time! Because they got curious!”

“Yeah, I know!” _He yelled at me. I stared. He sighed._ “Which is why there was more to the power of Overwrite than just wiping everyone's memories.”

“What?” _He nodded._

“Surely you've seen it. The way Frisk acted throughout this timeline.” _I felt my eyes go wide._

“What did you do to Frisk?” _He chuckled._

“Nothing much. All I did was alter their personality juuuust a smidge. Enough so that when I go to convince them not to reset after they finish the pacifist route, they would actually listen. They would leave it alone. They would let everyone finally get off this god forsaken mountain!” _I stared at him before staring at everyone else. They were exhausted, non-moving. I forgot that Asriel's vines could slowly suck away a person's energy and magic, leaving them helpless. But it would only work on already weakened monsters. Asriel wasn't exactly a Boss Monster in this form. He had limits too._

“Don't you want that Chara?” _I looked at him. He wasn't wrong. I wanted that too. But..._

“Yeah. I do Azzy. But then... why are you doing this?” _I gestured to the captives. He sighed, shaking his head._

“Because... Like I said... it is impossible to avoid the inevitable. I _have_ to do this Chara. I have to take everyone's souls one last time. Because if I don't... then there would be no way to break the barrier. Believe me when I say I've thought so long and so hard on an alternative way in doing so... But I couldn't come up with anything.”

“Then why did you kidnap everyone this early on if all you wanted was Frisk to go back on the path?! They would have done so eventually!”

“Because I was tired of waiting! I was going mad Chara! All Frisk had to do was just follow the path but all those deviations...! Don't get wrong, they were much appreciated. It affected Frisk in a great way. But I wasn't going to waste another day waiting for Frisk to get back on the path all because you were also thinking of an alternative way to break the barrier! A process that took me... SO LONG to think over! I wasn't going to let you waste my time!”

_I stared. He had a point. I knew how he felt. All that time just... watching Frisk go through timeline after timeline... In fact I lost all sense of time entirely because of all the resets. Time didn't matter anymore._

“Then why didn't you say anything to me? I could have done something to help.” _He stared at me, unsure._

“B-Because... I didn't know if I could trust you. After Snowdin... After your face just... melted... and your voice... You looked sinister. You looked like Frisk. I thought you just didn't care anymore. But now I see... that you were the one pulling Frisk into those deviations. You wanted them to go towards them. You actually care.”

“I'm not a psycho Azzy. I may be a bit twisted in the head after going insane from all the resets but... I'm still me. I'm still that first human that fell into the underground and became part of your family. I'm still the human that came up with that... stupid plan to break the barrier the first time. I'm still-”

“Golly what in the world is going on in here?!” _I stopped and slowly turned towards the end of the hall. Standing at the end was Asgore. He looked at the situation in horror._ “Tori?! Undyne?!” _I quickly looked at Asriel._

“What are you going to do?”

“I-I can't do anything. He's too strong for the plan to work.”

“Well how were you gonna get him in the first place?!”

“I was gonna toss Frisk into the throne room and have them fight him! Weaken him just enough so that I could-!” _He was cut off as fire flashed past him. We both looked. Asgore was angry, and he was ready for a fight. Though... I knew he would rather talk first before fighting, at least when it came to a monster._

“I may not know who you are... but please... release everyone you have captured and give me the human.” _Asriel was silent, staring at Asgore as I could see him trying to come up with a plan._ “I would really not like to resort to violence.”

“Asriel, you can't give him Frisk. They're too weak-”

“No. Actually... I can.” _I stared at him._

“WHAT?!”

“If I give him Frisk and Frisk dies, they'll reset! No one will remember this except you, me and Frisk. You already know my plan! All I ask is that you follow it! Put Frisk back on the path!” _I stared._

“B-But you don't know how far the reset will go!”

“Hopefully back before I kidnapped you all. That thing with Alphys... It's best if that still happens. It skips a lot of the game and would still get the same results.” _I watched as Asriel released everyone from his vines. Everyone except Frisk. They all fell to the floor and Asgore quickly made his towards them, picking up mom._

“Tori? Tori! Wake up Tori!” _I looked at Asriel. He was watching Asgore. When Asgore faced him, he practically said in a demanding voice,_ “What have you done to all of them?”

“They'll be fine... None of this will be remembered anyway.” _He moved the vine that held Frisk over to Asgore, holding them directly in front of him. Frisk was exhausted, but I could tell they were still conscious._ “Here. Take them.” _I watched as Asgore looked between Frisk and Asriel, suspicious yet uncertain._ “Well? Take them! They're the last human soul you need to break the barrier!” _Asgore gently placed mom down and stood up, looking at Frisk._

“As... As right as you are little flower... they are in no shape to fight. I may need their soul, but I would prefer it if they were in top condition to make it a fair fight.” _Asriel gaped before getting angry._

“Are you serious?! Are you _freaking_ serious?! You're not going to fight them because they are not well enough to fight fairly?! UGH! If you were Undyne you would have taken their soul no matter what shape they were in!” _He pulled Frisk away from Asgore, closer to himself._ “If you're not going to kill them then I will! I've gone through too much and waited too long for this opportunity! I am not letting you waste any more of my time!” _He looked at me._ “Get them back on the path. Please.” _I nodded. Then I blinked._

_The Judgment Hall was no more. Instead... everything was reset back to the point to before Alphys took us all down to the true lab. Frisk and Sans gasped, as if trying to gasp for air. Everyone looked at them with confused looks._

“Uh, guys? You two okay?” _Undyne asked. I watched as they looked at each other and then at me. I nodded at them and Sans looked up at everyone, forcing a smile on his face even though he was sweating._

“y-yeah, we're okay. right kiddo?” _Frisk shook a little before also giving a false smile and nod._ “h-heh. guess my joke was a little too... humerus.”

“OH MY GOD SANS THIS IS SERIOUS!”

“y-yeah, you're right pap. sorry. l-let's get going, ey alphys?”

“Y-Yes.”


	11. Secrets

_Thankfully, things went differently. After being shown the amalgamates again and hearing Alphys explain to everyone what exactly happened in the lab, Undyne was shocked, Papyrus was confused, Frisk was both. I sighed. At least it was over now. Now all that was left to do was to get through The CORE and confront Asgore. Though, Sans wasn't going to make that easy. When Alphys was making her speech, he pulled me aside, saying he wanted Frisk and I to talk with him over what just happened. And it was understandable. He did hear that the Doctor somehow had power out of his limbo._

_When all was said and done, Undyne stayed with Alphys in her lab as the rest of us made our way back to Snowdin, to which I groaned my protest. Once again we were leaving Hotland. Sorry Azzy. You're gonna have to wait a little while longer. When we arrived back in Snowdin, Sans spoke to Papyrus._

“hey uh, paps?”

“YES BROTHER?”

“why don't you go ahead and head home? the kiddos and i need to have a little 'heart to heart' heh.”  _ Papyrus groaned and rolled his eyes at Sans' obvious pun, as well as I.  _

“ALRIGHT THEN. JUST BE ON TIME FOR DINNER!”

“of course bro.”  _ Papyrus marched onward, further into Snowdin, and Sans let out a heavy sigh, running a hand over his face before looking at Frisk and me.  _ “alright... we need to find a more private place to talk about what the hell happened.”  _ Frisk nodded, suggesting the shed by the house. Sans shook his head.  _ “as great of an idea as that is, it's too close to the house. the last thing we need is papyrus hearing us. no, i got a better place in mind.”  _ He held out his hand to Frisk with a smile, and they grabbed it. I finally got to witness his 'shortcut' and it made me sick beyond belief. How was Frisk not nauseous? It was like the entire world spun around us so fast that everything was a blur. _

“you okay there kid? you're lookin' a little green around the gills.”  _ I held up my hand. His voice made me want to throw up even more. After a few deep breaths, I replied. _

“I'm fine... I'm fine.”

“you sure? you never reacted this way before with my shortcuts.”

“That's because my mind was a little preoccupied to notice the world spinning at a thousand miles per hour. This time I actually payed attention and I regret everything.”  _ I let out a sigh and looked at where we were. We were in a cave. Were we in Waterfall? No. I saw a door at one end of the cave. I stared. I knew where we were. We were in a cave that was just past the ice slide puzzle. Frisk never did know how to open this door. I then stared in surprise as Sans approached the door and gave, what I assumed was a secret, knock. It was kind of rhythmic, like he was making a beat. It sounded familiar too. And then the door opened. _

“Whoa, whoa wait. How did you do that?”  _ I asked. He looked at me, stupid grin on his face. _

“what? you tellin' me you never knew what was here? i thought you knew everything.”  _ I glared. Wise-ass. He chuckled and urged us in. I looked around. It was a small room. In the far corner to the right was a computer and... a jigsaw puzzle? And in the middle of the floor was a blanket with a lot of holes and a small white dog asleep on it. I stared. This dog seemed familiar. Sans whistled and the dog instantly woke up, wildly getting up and bounding towards Sans as he closed the door. Sans laughed as the dog yipped and jumped around him. Sans pet the dog. _

“heh heh! hey there tobs-miester. how's my little guy doin'?”  _ I was utterly confused. That's all that was back here? Just a small room with a dog?! Now I'm glad Frisk never knew how to open the door. It would have been a disappointment and a lousy secret. I watched as Frisk pet the dog, asking Sans its name. _

“his name's toby. i think he's related to one of the guard dogs.”

“You think?”  _ I asked. Sans shrugged. _

“he's not all that good at fighting like the other guard dogs, but he's one heck of a stunt dog.”

“Stunt dog...?”

“yeah. you don't recognize him? he volunteered to be in papyrus' 'bridge of doom' puzzle.”  _ I stared. No freaking way. Which meant this was the same dog that stole Papyrus' special attack and was under the skeleton's kitchen sink. Sans laughed and I rubbed my head, ruffling my hair. This secret definitely wouldn't have been worth it. Sans' laugh died down and he said in a serious tone,  _ “but... enough about this.”  _ Frisk and I looked at him, as well as the dog. He was full on frowning. I knew what was going to happen next.  _ “we've got things to discuss.”

“Yeah.”  _ I sighed. _

“so first and foremost, and i want to make this really clear; what, and i can not stress this enough, the  _ HELL  _ was all that about earlier?”  _ He looked between me and Frisk, though I knew Frisk was just as confused as he was. _

“You can stop looking at Frisk. They won't know anything. I'm the only one who knows what's going on.”

“then speak kid. because we're not going anywhere until this issue gets resolved.”

“Well...”  _ I actually had to take a moment to think. How was I going to phrase this in a way Frisk would understand? In a way they would hear me?  _ “How... conscious were you two?”

“just barely.”  _ Frisk nodded in agreement to Sans.  _ “i remember hearing that weed mention the doctor and... something about a plan to put an end to frisk's power... what did he mean kid?”  _ I sighed. _

“Well, you and I both know of Frisk's power. The power to reset. And like I've told you... Frisk has reset the timeline back to the beginning many, many times already.”  _ Frisk shook their head, giving a worried look, saying they would never do that.  _ “Well you did Frisk.”  _ I snapped.  _ “And I got dragged through it all because I am bound to you. For how long, I have no idea. This could be a forever thing!”  _ They said they don't remember.  _ “Of course you don't. If what Asriel said is true... you've lost everything and was given a chance to start everything back from scratch... and it isn't fair...”  _ I let out a sigh. _

“Anyway... Asriel mentioned a power created by the Doctor. How he did that and reached out to Asriel we'll never know, but... we can't take this situation lightly. This power... 'Overwrite' he called it... if it can truly do what Asriel said it can... then it's very dangerous. Asriel may have had only one shot with it, but that doesn't mean the Doctor couldn't use it or approach someone else with this power.”  _ I looked at the two. Frisk was confused while Sans' eye lights were out. _

“what... can it do?”  _ He asked. _

“I'm not sure what all it can do. All Asriel said was that it can fully erase the minds and memories of others and gives the user the ability to alter the personalities of people of whomever they choose. In this case... Asriel said he altered Frisk's personality so that when they reach Asgore... when they break the barrier... he will be able to convince them not to reset anymore.”  _ Frisk said they would never reset back to the beginning. It wouldn't have been right to put everyone through this again. _

“Frisk. Haven't you noticed? The only ones who will actually remember if you reset are you, Sans, Asriel and myself. Frisk... you hold a terrible power. One where, if Sans, Asriel and myself weren't around, you could do anything and it not have consequences...”  _ I stared down at my chest before making a pulling motion with my hand. It was weird. I never really had to pull out my own soul before, even when I was alive. And considering I always thought I never had a soul when I woke up as a ghost, I never had the need to actually do it on myself. _

_ I stared at my soul in shock. It was glitching worse than before. That wasn't good. Frisk and Sans looked concerned. I had to reassure them I was okay, despite what my soul was displaying.  _ “I'm fine guys, really. Just... look at this Frisk. This is my... apparently, soul. Look at it. Look at my statistics.”  _ Frisk gave me a confused and worried look before looking at my soul. They read my stats out loud and gave a confused look. They asked what LV and EXP stood for. I looked at Sans. I forgot that Frisk learned this from him in The Judgment Hall. _

“w-well...”  _ Sans started, getting Frisk's attention.  _ “LV is the abbreviation for the acronym LOVE. The acronym is known here in the underground as 'Level of Violence' and the only way for someone's LOVE to increase is if they get enough EXP, which is also an acronym. it stands for 'Execution Points.'”  _ Sans rubbed his head. I could tell he was feeling awkward. _ “you see kid... the more you hurt others, the less you feel. The less you feel, the more you'll hurt others. do you understand?”  _ Frisk nodded somewhat. They said the kind of understood. They looked at my soul again. They asked how I got to have so much LV and EXP and yet still be a caring person. _

“That's just it though Frisk. It isn't mine. It's yours. Every single drop of LV and EXP I have in my soul is yours from all the previous timelines. You used my soul a type of storage container for it all.”  _ They stared at me in shock. They shook their head, saying that was impossible. That they would never hurt someone. I gritted my teeth.  _ “That's a lie Frisk!”  _ They flinched.  _ “You may not have your memories anymore but I do! I have them all! I remember every single horrible thing you did in all those timelines just because you were either bored or curious! THIS!” I held my soul out, closer to them. “THIS is all your fault! Because you just couldn't leave things alone! Your curiosity just had to get the better of you! You acted like you were a god! Like nothing could stop you!”

“hey, easy kid.”  _ I glared at Sans. _

“Don't 'easy kid' me you good for nothing, lazy, drunkard piece of shit! You don't know the things I went through! The things I've seen! You have no right to tell me to-!”  _ I was suddenly forced to the ground, my body heavy. Really heavy. I couldn't even look up. _

“i'm gonna say this nicely again, and if i have to repeat myself for a third time, i ain't gonna be nice. now... calm. down.”  _ I was fuming but I couldn't do anything. I wanted to scream but if Sans was actually serious, which I'm sure he was, he would probably toss me as far away as he could, straining me against the line that was my boundary to Frisk. And I didn't like that feeling. It was like I was going to break. I calmed my shaking to a minimum and I felt my body become light. I sighed heavily, as well as Sans. _

“i get it kid. you're upset. you've... been through hell.”

“Tch. That's an understatement.”  _ I said, floating up. I looked at Frisk. They were afraid but also worried. They stuttered, saying that they would promise not to reset to the very beginning. I clenched my hands into fists.  _ “Yeah. Sure.”  _ I said sarcastically.  _ “Asriel may have said that he tampered with your personality so that you won't reset ever again but you're still human Frisk. And humans... tch... Humans are the ones who should be locked away in the underground, not monsters. They are the real monsters...”

“is that how it was like?”  _ I looked up at Sans.  _ “when you were alive?”

“Tch. I hated humanity... Frisk may be the only human I've been around since I first woke up in who knows how many years but... they proved to me that humanity hasn't changed...”

“you can't just base all of humanity's personality on the actions of just one kid, kid.”  _ I stared at him, glared maybe. I scoffed. _

“Sure I can. And Frisk just so happened to prove my point further.”  _ There was silence between all of us. Sans was tired of my attitude, I was tired of his, and Frisk just sat on the ground, petting the white dog as their face had a mixture of confusion and worry. They then said, very softly, that they were sorry. Sorry for whatever things they think they did. Sorry that they had no memory. Sorry that I was left alone. They started to cry. I gave a heavy, heavy sigh, shaking my head. Sans was comforting Frisk, rubbing their back. _

“Look... Frisk... At least I know that this reset wasn't your fault. So... I can't be mad at you or blame you for having your memories erased and leaving me out of it. But Frisk...”  _ They looked up at me, tears still falling.  _ “You still did terrible things in the underground. Things that I will forever remember.”  _ They looked down and Sans glared at me, to which I rolled my eyes at. _

_We all calmed down after awhile of sitting in silence. That was good. The last thing any of us needed was to get stressed over something that no longer matters anymore. I let out a sigh, getting the other two's attention._

“So... we need to discuss what's going to happen after we leave this room.”

“what do you plan on doing?”

“I plan on following Asriel's plan.”

“and that consists of...?”

“Getting Frisk to the barrier.”

“so it's not really a new plan, it's just the original plan.”

“No. I mean... Kind of but different. You see, a lot of things went out of order. Frisk was supposed to get through The CORE, fight Mettaton and learn the truth before they reached the fight with Asgore.”

“what truth?”

“Well, truth, story... It's the same thing but... Frisk was supposed to learn about... the story of Asriel and I. It happens when they reach the home before Asgore's throne room.”

“oh. that story.”

“Yeah. The one Asriel told before kidnapping all of us. Though... he left out some things but... it was the gist of it. Anyway, some... things happened and it is when Frisk resets after defeating Asriel the first time to before they fight Asgore, they were supposed to visit Alphys and learn the truth about the amalgamates and what Alphys was really researching.”

“just alphys?”

“Well... some of those data entries did seem a little... you. But there was no mention of the Doctor or your involvement anywhere else.”

“so then, how did you know about him? about me?”

“Well... because once in a timeline something happened. Something... different. Frisk was just heading to Waterfall when they found themselves going down a hallway they never seen before, a single door on its wall. When we went through, we saw him. We don't know how it happened, but it never happened again. It had to have been something involving that timeline.”

“wait so you actually saw the doctor?”

“Yeah.”

“w-what happened when you saw him? when he saw you, er, frisk?”

“He just... waved. Gave us a smile. It gave us the creeps, the way he did it all. And then... we were kicked out of the room by some invisible force and the door shut and disappeared as well as the hallway. And because of Frisk's curiosity, they tried everything they could to figure out who he was. After going through some... time consuming things... We were only able to learn a few things about him. One of them being... how no one except a select few don't have any memory of him. It was like he didn't even exist.”

_ Sans stared with an empty socket look.  _ “We then learned that those select few called themselves the 'Gaster Followers.' And they all had a few things in common...”  _ I hesitated. Not only because it was screwing with Sans, which, in some part of my mind, he deserved, but because I actually had to think about what I was saying. I never really knew what to make of the followers. _

“w-well? what?”  _ I looked up at him. He was nervous. _

“They all lacked color for one. They were all just... black, white and grey. And what was even more bizarre was that they just... appeared out of nowhere and then disappeared after telling us what they knew, never to be seen again. It was like they were... ghosts. Or maybe... maybe they too were trapped in the void with the Doctor. All we know is that an accident happened and it took away the Doctor and everyone's memories of him-”  _ I gasped, coming to a realization. Sans must have realized it too because he gasped as well and stared at me. We stared at each other. No... _

“N-No... Th-That's...”

“a-are you thinkin' what i'm thinkin kid?”  _ Sans was actually shaking. I tried making words but they just didn't want to come out. I was just opening and closing my mouth like an idiot. _

“I-I... Th-This... H-He...!”

“he overwritten himself.”  _ I was a little grateful Sans said it first. I rubbed my hand over my forehead. My head was starting to hurt. I had so many questions now. Frisk interrupted my thoughts, asking if we were okay. I looked at them. Did they not hear what we were discussing? Probably not. After all, it wasn't part of the game. Sans looked at them.  _ “u-uh... yeah kid... did you... happen to hear what we were discussing?”  _ Frisk nodded. I stared. Why did they nod? Talk of the Doctor was far beyond the normal game play. The only way Frisk would have been able to understand was if... No... _

“Frisk...”  _ They looked at me.  _ “Do you... know the Doctor?”  _ They gave a confused look. They asked for a name. _

“gaster.”  _ Sans said. Frisk thought before shaking their head. _

“W-wait, wait. What about... WingDings?”  _ Frisk perked, nodding their head. I stared. I don't know whether it was in horror or shock or maybe both but I STARED. Sans was doing the same thing. _

“WHEN?”  _ We both asked Frisk. They jumped, startled. They said right before they fell. _

“did he say anything to you?”  _ Sans was starting to get manic. I didn't think he'd get this worked up. Which meant he knew something. Frisk said that he only said one thing to them after introducing himself as Doctor WingDings. They said he told them to 'Be good.' I had to take my eyes away from Frisk. Be good? Was it possible the Doctor was also trying to encourage Frisk not to reset anymore? I heard Sans growl.  _ “that can't be it!”  _ He was actually angry. Frisk flinched. I flinched. _

“Sans...”  _ He looked at me, glaring really.  _ “What do you know about the Doctor?”  _ He stared. _

“i thought you were supposed to know everything.”  _ I glared. _

“Listen wise-ass, you just heard me say that I only know a few things about him. It's not my fault that no matter what Frisk did they could only find a few things. They got tired of trying to purse him. So again I will ask... What do you know about the Doctor?”

“honestly?”

“I would prefer it to be an honest answer.”  _ He sighed deeply, rubbing his hands over his face. _

“i can honestly say that... you don't want to know kid.”

“Can you at least confirm if he is or isn't someone to trust?”  _ He was silent, looking away, sockets empty.  _ “I see...”

“what i can say for certainty is that... he does things for a reason. giving that weed the power to... overwrite time and people... he did it for a reason. meeting frisk on the outside of the mountain before they fell... it was for a reason. he doesn't do things randomly.”  _ We all were silent and I don't know for how long. I had then come to realize that the main conversation had gotten derailed a few times already. I thought about it. Was it really worth mentioning now? No... No, there would be other times. I let out a sigh, getting their attention. _

“L-Look... why don't we all just... head back to Snowdin? Go back to your house? Relax and... process everything. And then later... we can continue our main conversation.”

“r-right... i forgot the main reason we were here.”  _ Frisk nodded in agreement. _

“Alright... let's get going then.”  _ Sans opened the door and Frisk stood up, walking out with me behind. As Sans walked out, just before he closed the door, the white dog came hopping out. _

“ah, goin' somewhere toby? guess i'll see you around bud.”  _ The dog yipped before bounding away, only to stop halfway down the tunnel and look back. What disturbed me though... was that the dog was looking at me. Now that I thought about it, that little white dog was staring at me a few times as we all talked. Why was a pet able to see me? I then shivered when the expression on the dog's face actually looked... worried. It was only for a moment before it looked forward and full on sprinted out of the cave. _

“what's up kid?”  _ I looked at Sans. Did he seriously not see that? _

“Did you seriously not see that?”

“see what?”

“Th-The dog! It could see me!”

“well yeah.”

“What?”

“he was staring at you from time to time we were in that room. i was surprised too but then i just thought maybe it was because he was an animal. they say animals are able to see ghosts and spirits you know.”  _ He wasn't wrong. That was indeed something that people believed. _

“O-Okay but... But the way he looked at me, you didn't see that?”

“no, what?”

“He... He looked worried. For me...”

“sorry kid. i didn't see anything.”  _ I stay silent. There was no point in pushing it anymore. _

“Right... Come on, let's go.”


	12. One More Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if this chapter seems underwhelming! I promise the next will be a little more interesting!

_Frisk asked Papyrus if they could cook with him, to which he happily accepted. I rolled my eyes as I stayed outside of the kitchen. We had spent ANOTHER night at the house. Undyne and Alphys were supposed to be coming over from Hotland._

"you okay there kid?"  _ I looked up at Sans before turning my head. We had yet to continue our conversation. There just didn't seem to be a good time to get away from Papyrus. He really liked hanging out with Frisk, and that meant I had to go along with them, wherever they went. _

"Yeah. Peachy."  _ I said sarcastically. I heard him sigh and he sat next to me, next to his sock that had multiple notes by it.  _ "Are you ever going to pick that up?"  _ He shrugged, smile on his face. _

"oh yeah. as soon as i can.”  _ He was being sarcastic. I could tell by the way he just smiled and winked at me. I groaned and rolled my eyes, peeking around the corner and into the kitchen. I stared. Frisk was... actually really good at helping Papyrus prep lunch. I knew Frisk wasn't just some dumb kid but... I mean... they were just a little shorter than Sans, and Sans was a short monster. They had to be like... at least thirteen. I glanced down, in thought. I never really did bother asking Frisk how old they were... or what they were. Frisk never really did anything... hygienic. But then again... they plowed through every single reset we went through. Plus I knew that monster food was completely different from human food. For one, instead of becoming waste, it became food for a person's soul, which meant it was dangerous for humans to eat in large quantities in a single sitting since it held no nutritional value for a human's body. _

_Another way it was different was that it didn't create waste to be expelled from the body, meaning no need to use the bathroom. Even the water was like that. I then started to actually think... how did I survive for so long? Heh... I guess I really didn't, all things considering. The only reason I knew these facts about monster food was because Frisk, once in a timeline, actually took the time to look through Snowdin's librarby... Library- Damn it, can't believe I actually said that- and found a few books explaining the difference between monster and human habits, though... they seemed a little inaccurate in some places._

_I looked back in the kitchen. Frisk was chopping vegetables... I stared at the knife in their hand. Flashes of memories coming back. All that dust... I sighed. Frisk wasn't going to be like that anymore if Asriel's plan works._

“you okay kid?”  _ I looked at Sans. I was surprised he was still there. _

“No better or worse than when you asked three minutes ago.”  _ I said with a little attitude... alright a lot of attitude. He raised his hands. _

“whoa, easy kid. what's got you rattled?”  _ I groaned in my hands. _

“This is so stupiiiid. We should have been at The CORE already.”  _ I didn't have to look at him to know he was practically glaring at me. _

“a little impatient aren't we?”  _ I glared at him. _

“I promised Asriel to put Frisk back on the path as soon as possible. We are wasting time here! We should be at The CORE!”  _ Sans sighed and sat back against the wall, hands in his jacket pockets. _

“ya know kid... a little r-and-r ain't gonna kill you or Frisk.”

“We don't have time for that-!”

“oh don't you?”  _ I glared.  _ “you see kid, from what i'm understanding... your happy ending will still be waiting for you, no matter when you and the kid leave to continue your path. so... where's the harm in doing something a little off the path? like having fun.”

“I don't want to have fun, I just want to get out of this stupid mountain-!”  _ He scoffed, rolling his eye lights, and then he laughed, interrupting me. _

“you and all the other monsters here!”  _ I stared at him, glared really. I wasn't the only one who wanted to get out of here, out of this mountain, sure... But... Asriel and I were the only ones who wanted out of this constant loop of resets. And that... was a lot more important than the feelings of all the monsters in the underground. _

“I wasn't done talking.”  _ I scowled. He chuckled and looked at me before staring in surprise and then his eye lights darting away from making eye contact with me. _

“s-sorry kid. didn't mean to make you cry.”  _ I stared. Was I crying? I swear, I had gotten too emotional in this timeline. I touched my face. Yep. I was crying. I groaned.  _ “w-what else were you going to say?”  _ I sighed, shaking my head and curling up, holding my legs close. _

“Nothing... never mind.”  _ I saw the guilt on his face. I internally smiled. Ass deserved to feel like that. I then gasped as it felt like something just forcefully jabbed into me. I then heard a clatter in the kitchen. I got up quickly and headed in to see Frisk holding their hand, hissing in pain. _

“H-HUMAN! ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!”

“paps? what happened?”  _ Frisk apologized. Said that they accidentally cut themselves. They weren't paying attention. Sans rushed out of the kitchen. I floated over. _

“Let me see Frisk.”  _ I said. They showed me their hand. I gave a small sigh. It wasn't that bad. Just a small cut, a little bit of blood loss. Sans was back with a first aid kit. I stared.  _ “What are you doing?”  _ He looked at me, confused. _

“what do you mean 'what am i doing?' i'm trying to help the kid.”

“Then let Papyrus do it.”  _ They all stopped and stared at me.  _ “What?”

“well obviously i'm gonna let papyrus heal them, but i don't really know how well a human takes to green magic kid. it's best to be on the safe side-”

“It works just fine.”  _ I received even more confused stares. I groaned and rolled my eyes.  _ “Just trust me, alright? Come on Papyrus, heal them before they bleed more.”

“R-RIGHT!”  _ He took Frisk's hand into his two, saying,  _ “NOW YOU MIGHT FEEL A LITTLE WARM BUT THAT'S NATURAL! HONEST!” _ Frisk stared in awe as a green glow was emitted between his hands. It didn't last long. He let go of Frisk and they stared in awe, asking Papyrus how he did that, to which Sans chuckled. _

“really kid? you've gotten so far and you don't know how magic works considering it's been used against you so many times?”  _ They blushed, embarrassed. They apologized. I was too busy looking at their hand. Not a single scar, as expected. Frisk then asked me how I knew it would work. I stared at them. Were they serious? Did they seriously forget the conversation we had yesterday? Frisk must have caught my attitude because they blushed again, embarrassed. I sighed. _

“Th-there are m-m-many kinds of m-monster magic.”  _ We all turned to see that Undyne and Alphys walked into the house. I stared at Alphys. She was actually bundled up tight. As for Undyne... She was just wearing casual clothes. It made me wonder how she could handle the cold. _

“We knocked but no one answered.”  _ Undyne said.  _ “Hope ya don't mind us just coming in.”

“of course not undyne. alphys, you're looking as snug as a bug in a rug.”  _ Sans said, finger gunning. _

“I-I-It's freezing here S-S-Sans. H-How can you l-l-live in these conditions?”

“easy. i have no skin.”

“We're not interrupting anything are we? Why are you holding a first aid kit?”

“ah, well... there was a... slight problem but it's fixed, honest.”  _ I couldn't help but snicker as Alphys fell over trying to take off all her layered gear, to which I received comments and glares. I just rolled my eyes. _

“I'M HAPPY TO LET YOU ALL KNOW THAT LUNCH IS NOW READY!”  _ Papyrus called. _

“might need to find a couple more chairs bro. we only got four and there's six of us here.”  _ I stared at him. _

“Ohhhh no! Uh uh! I am NOT eating whatever Papyrus and Frisk made! You all can get sick and die on your own, but don't drag my afterlife into this! Besides! Even if I wanted to join you guys-which I don't!- I wouldn't even need a chair, I'm a ghost! Another thing! I'm a ghost! I don't have to eat! So peace suckers!”  _ I quickly sank into the floor, going as far as I could, just grazing the boundary. But it didn't last long. I was being pulled along. Frisk was moving somewhere. My body went heavy and I was dragged up. I groaned and was about to yell when I stopped and saw that it wasn't Sans who pulled me up, but Papyrus. I looked around. We were in the shed. _

"What do  _ you _ want Papyrus?"  _ He had a smug smile on him, like he was happy with himself for capturing my soul in his magic. I then heard Frisk say that Papyrus wanted to talk with the both of us. Huh. I looked at him.  _ "Alright, fine. What Papyrus?"

"NYEH HEH HEH! LISTEN CLOSE GHOST HUMAN CHARA!"  _ I rolled my eyes. Kind of hard not to listen. He then... Pointed to me. In a 'matter of fact' kind of way.  _ "YOU HAVE SUCH POOR MANNERS!"  _ I stared at him. Seriously? I sighed, letting him continue.  _ "AND FROM WHAT I'VE HEARD FROM SANS, I HAVE DEDUCED THAT THE REASON YOU HAVE POOR MANNERS IS BECAUSE YOU DON'T HAVE ANY FRIENDS BESIDES THE HUMAN FRISK! YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO SOCIALIZE!"  _ I glared. What did that ass say to Papyrus? When did he talk to Papyrus? And then Papyrus had the NERVE to talk about my manners. I sighed internally. Of course he would. Papyrus was someone to confront a person about how they acted if he deemed it rude.  _ "AND SO! IN ORDER TO REDUCE YOUR RUDE MANNERISMS, I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL BECOME YOUR SECOND FRIEND!"

_ I groaned internally. I couldn't get frustrated at Papyrus, not when I knew that Sans could crush my soul in an instant. But I knew Frisk was feeling my anger since they fidgeted, looking nervous.  _ "NYEH HEH HEH! SPEECHLESS I SEE! BUT OF COURSE! HAVING ME AS A FRIEND IS SUCH A GREAT HONOR!"  _ I sighed a little, defeated. Alright. Fine. I'll play Papyrus' game for a little bit. I just had to fake it. Not that hard. I flashed a smile up at Papyrus, to which he stared in shock. Figures. I never really smiled anymore. _

"OOH! LOOK AT YOU! OBVIOUSLY SO OVERJOYED!"

"Oh yes! Thank you for being my friend Papyrus! That makes me so happy! You were right! I was just lonely is all. I would hug you, but I would phase right through you!"  _ I wanted to throw up. But I knew that if I can just fake this, I won't have to deal with Papyrus. _

"NYEH HEH! I KNEW IT! AND DON'T WORRY ABOUT THE HUG! I KNOW YOU WOULD PUT A LOT OF FEELING BEHIND IT!"  _ He was beaming in what he thought was triumph. Frisk came up behind me, whispering, saying it wasn't nice of me to be fooling Papyrus. I turned to them, my back at Papyrus, my fake smile dropping and I gave a glare. _

"Listen close Frisk because I'm going to say this only once. I. Don't. Care."  _ I whispered back.  _ "I'm only doing this so that I can get Papyrus off my back. If you had your memories you would understand why I feel like this."  _ Frisk looked down and I sighed, feeling a little guilty. Just a little. I knew it wasn't Frisk's fault that they lost their memories. That belonged to Asriel. But... It was their fault that I had these memories, forced to watch them go through reset after reset. _

"IS EVERYTHING ALRIGHT?"  _ Right, Papyrus. I took a breath, plastering a fake smile and turned to him. _

"Oh yeah! Don't worry about it Papyrus? Frisk and I were just discussing something! But we handled it! Right Frisk?" _ Frisk gave a shaky smile and nod. _

"WOWIE! YOUR MANNERS ARE BETTER ALREADY! COME ON THEN! LET US GO AND EAT LUNCH AT THE HOUSE WITH THE OTHERS!"  _ Papyrus made his way out of the shed and I turned to Frisk, smile dropped. They gave me a worried look. They said they were sorry. _

"Whatever Frisk. If you want to make it up to me, go. To. The. CORE. Now come on or else Papyrus will get suspicious."  _ Frisk sighed and walked out of the shed before yelping. I got dragged quickly as something took Frisk. Damn, the strain of the boundary made me want to hurl. It stopped and I heard Asriel's angry voice. _

"What the HELL are you two still doing here?!"  _ I got out of the daze to see that we got dragged to the trees by Waterfall's entrance.  _ "Why aren't you at The CORE?!"  _ I saw Asriel had Frisk wrapped in a vine. _

"Azzy-"

"Don't 'Azzy' me! What are two doing here?!"

"Tch."  _ I glared at him.  _ "You think I want to be here? Frisk won't leave!"  _ Asriel glared at Frisk, tightening the vine around them some. _

"WHY?! Where you not told what you needed to do?!"  _ Frisk whimpered, nodding their head, saying they knew what they had to do, that they discussed it with me.  _ "THEN WHY AREN'T YOU AT THE CORE?!"  _ He squeezed more, almost cutting off Frisk's air supply.  _

"They can't exactly explain themselves if you choke them Asriel!"  _ He clicked his tongue and released Frisk from the vines, them dropping onto the snow, gasping for air. When they collected themselves, they said they were sorry. _

"Why are you still here in Snowdin?"  _ Asriel asked, teeth clenched. Frisk explained that they didn't have the supplies to go wherever they needed to go. I flinched. Supplies. Of course. We didn't have enough gold to get supplies. We ran out of supplies when we reached the resort. Asriel clicked his tongue.  _ "You won't need it. With that bucket of bolts out of the way and Doctor Alphys no longer trying to impress you, the path to Asgore is straight forward."

_ Frisk stared, worried.  _ "Besides! You don't even need them! They just distract you from the battle!"  _ Frisk said that they didn't want to fight. Asriel took a breath, as if to calm himself. He said, not as angry,  _ "You won't fight Frisk... At least I hope not much. I can't capture Asgore if he's at full strength. You would need to deal him just some damage so I can grab him if Toriel doesn't show up immediately."  _ Frisk looked down, hugging themselves, rubbing their arms.  _ "Frisk. You have to do this. You can't avoid this anymore."

"Azzy."  _ He looked at me.  _ "...Give us one more day. One more day of rest and we'll head for The CORE. Is that alright Frisk?"  _ They were silent, still trying to warm themselves, before they gave a hesitant nod. Asriel scowled, clicking his tongue. _

"Fine. One more day. But that's it!"  _ I nodded and he retreated. I let out a heavy sigh and looked at Frisk. They were really shivering. _

"Come on Frisk. The others might get worried. Plus it's obvious you're freezing-"  _ I stopped when something shot out of the hole Asriel retreated into. We both looked as it landed in front of Frisk. A worn dagger.  _ "You're going to need that."  _ Frisk was hesitant to grab it but when they did they took out their phone and opened up one of the dimensional boxes that was installed on their phone by Alphys and tossed it in. They said they didn't feel comfortable holding it. I nodded and motioned them to get up and when they did we headed back to the house, where we saw Sans on the porch. _

_When he saw us, relief flooded over his face._

"there ya are kid. where'd ya go? paps said you were right behind him."  _ I looked at Frisk. They were hesitant. I couldn't tell if it was because they were freezing or because they didn't want to tell Sans. Sans noticed their shiver and he opened the door.  _ "c'mon kid, let's get you warmed up. don't want ya to catch a cold."


End file.
